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99% of the people on YouTube cannot be called 'creators' unless the word is applied after the word 'content' and that followed with, 'for the sake of' and more often than not, proceeded by the word 'banal'. An endless stream of copycats with very little originality. It does exist (originality) but there isn't very much.

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I was on a very, very slow internet connection this morning so YouTube was loading in instalments. It loaded the titles but the thumbnails were a long time coming and it’s interesting how much more appealing a lot of the videos were to me when just looking at the title but how much less so they were when the thumbnails eventually loaded. I’m probably missing out on a great deal of good content by my inner “oh fuck off you absolute tit” dialogue when I see the content creators stupid gurning shock faced bullshit. Whether the narcissism that infects so many of them would allow them to just do a content relevant thumbnail is the big question. I can hear the ”But the algorithm makes us do it” whining from here.

A 2.36mp EVF and a fixed LCD in a $5100 camera. Oh boy.

Well that is interesting… My ‘new’ S1Rii came with firmware v1.2 and Arri log C3 installed so some mug just bought and sold this camera pronto to MPB and I snaffled it for £2700. Unless I am the mug and they sold it to MPB because of some fault…but then surely they would have sent it back for a full refund to wherever they bought it on the first place? Someone probably lost over £750 in depreciation + Arri license… Not that I can use it because my other 3 Lumix cameras will never get option. Instead, looking forward to giving @Andrew Reid option a whirl, but it’s finding the time, - heavily bogged down with work at the moment…

It's arrived. First impressions = impressed. Feels like a very slightly chunkier S5ii and as it is taking over from a Sony A7RV (and a Nikon Zf), that is no bad thing. When it was first announced, I was disappointed on two counts... Count 01 = the body, - it was and is not a mini S1H. No top dial for one thing. Boo! Count 02 = it didn't have and still doesn't have the 61mp sensor from the A7RV/Leica SL3. Boo. Initially boo anyway. Count 03 = I am The Count and I like to count ha ha ha. (Bonus Count) But over time, these two 'issues' have become non-issues for me. The body first. Yes, I would rather it had the top LCD and was it's own design, but they have addressed my criticisms of the OG S5 and S5ii which were less than great rear LCD and horrible clacky shutter. It does have a sort of mini S1H feel, despite the lack of a top LCD. Summary, in reality, in the hand, I genuinely like it and everything works exactly or at least very similar to, how I am used to with the S5ii's, but just better. And the 44mp sensor over the 61mp? Came to the conclusion that 61mp was overkill anyway and was always shooting in 26mp mode so with the new Panny, I will actually be shooting in a higher resolution. Most importantly of all though, this has been an exercise in both downsizing my overall kit; this year from 5 bodies and 9 lenses to 4 bodies and 7 lenses, and then in 2026 (or poss later this Summer) from 7 down to 6 lenses. And all 4 cameras with the same batteries, menus and very close manual controls. Setting it up now for stills duty across 5 days from the end of this week and then it will also be on hybrid duty from mid Aug. Looking forward to pulling some 7.2...1k frame grabs.

There is a time for a clean aesthetic. There is a time for a more timeless more filmic aesthetic. There are times for a far grittier aesthetic too. Those who have been following my other thread will know I've mostly got my travel / walk-around AF setup nailed. (GH7 and GX85 bodies combined with the 14-140mm zoom, 12-35mm F2.8 zoom, 9mm F1.7, and 14mm F2.5 pancake lens) This setup will give a relatively clean starting point which can be graded to create a pretty wide range of looks. However, not everything can be achieved in post. I have also collected a bunch of modern MF lenses and vintage lenses over the years and these might be useful in creating other looks that I can't do in post with the above kit. So I'm trying to work out if I should just archive them or if they're still good for anything I want to do, and if so, what might that be? I've looked through my continually growing collection of lens comparisons, but found nothing conclusive. Thus begins a moderately sized lens / camera test... The setups included in the test are below. The details in brackets are the FF equivalents. OG BMPCC + 12-35mm F2.8 (35-100mm F8.0) This setup is included as I think it will be a reference for the rest of the setups (at worst) and might end up becoming part of my standard kit (at best). GF3 + 15mm F8 (30mm F16) This setup is included as it's essentially a modern Super-8mm camera, and considering it is absolutely tiny and takes the same batteries as the GX85 it's almost inconsequential to bring on a trip. GX85 with: Modern: Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 (24-70mm F5.6) Modern: Panasonic 14mm F2.5 (28mm F5) Modern: Panasonic 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 (28-84mm F7.0-11.2) Modern MF: TTartisans 17mm F1.4 (34mm F2.8) Vintage: Cosmicar 12.5mm F1.9 SB (36mm F5.5) Modern MF: Voigtlander 17.5mm F0.95 (35mm F1.9) Vintage: SB + Yashica 28mm F2.8 (40mm F4.0) Vintage: SB + Tokina 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 (40-100mm F5.0-6.4) Vintage: SB + Takumar 35mm F3.5 (50mm F5) Vintage: SB + Mir-1B 37mm F2.8 (53mm F4) Vintage: SB + Takumar 55mm F1.8 (78mm F2.6) Vintage: SB + Helios 44M 58mm F2.0 (82mm F2.8) Modern MF: Voigtländer 42.5mm f0.95 (85mm F1.9) Modern MF: TTartisans 50mm f1.2 (100mm F2.4) I haven't included all my lenses, but the ones I have omitted have been included in other tests previously and are broadly similar to ones I have included, so if they become interesting as a result of this test I have some more reference materials. I watched a doco on Netflix the other day called Attack on London, and was really inspired by the look of the 'recreation' images they have obviously filmed for the doc, and seem to have used one of the filthiest anamorphic lenses around (and potentially added more dirt in post as well). Here are some screenshots.. These might not have been streamed at the highest bitrate available, but I don't care - they look great and have so much texture and feel. This isn't the exact aesthetic I'm going for, but it's one that I saw recently that has a lot of texture and FEEL. My hope is to work out what the ingredients are to getting this kind of feel and then work out when I would want it and then work backwards to what equipment and processes I'd use to get it. My initial impressions (guesses) are that the ingredients are: shallower DoF lower levels of sharpness decent amounts of grain film colours (especially having a tint and having subtractive sat) The above images have more elements to them than this, but I don't care much for things like CA etc, so I don't think they're part of the minimum required elements. I plan to shoot comparisons with the setups above in a range of different scenarios and then see what I can see, before moving onto the post workflows and what role those play.

Yes, I noticed it too, but as it was just a quick test I didn't bother. It's just from the jpg compression so I'm not having to upload 8.5MB per image (yes, really!). I'll watch for it on the next batch 🙂 I got an email from Sirui Australia that shipping on my anamorphic adapter is delayed due to the Amazon Prime Day sales, so I'm guessing that lots of Aussies must have sent some money their way.

I see lots of banding in your images kye, i hope its mot just me lol. i presume that's from the jpg setting. I used to get banding from jpegs when i used them in timelapses till i learned better. Can you maybe up the jpeg quality a notch ? I know their only test shots, however i kinda feel the banding is hindering the visual aspect abit.

And the industry is fairly confident it's the same sensor in the S1Rii, so I have exactly the same thing, albeit just like an octopus that has had 7 of its 8 limbs removed. Kind of...

this. maybe it's something everyone needs to experience firsthand. i thought that i would buy these vintage or modern cinema lenses with character and take these epic shots with them but just focusing on keeping the camera steady and trying to use focus wheel feels makes me switch to my first party AF lenses. i was recently going through some stuff that i shot and with a simple grade the footage was really filmic lol.

Only 7.1k? Better just stay home then. Everybody knows that it's a waste of time to shoot anything less than 7.2k. 😉

An update on my testing. I was thinking about what I wanted - something low quality in the optical path to dirty up the image a bit, and then it struck me - what I want is a cheap wide angle adapter! Then I remembered I had bought one years ago and went and found it and gave it a go. It's too small for most of my lenses (it's 52mm but most of my lenses are 58mm) but is a cheap 0.45x wide angle adapter so I shot some quick tests. Here are some direct with/without comparisons to give an idea of what does. These are all SOOC so ignore the incorrect WB settings and mismatched exposures etc. All lenses are wide open. GX85 + 14mm F2.5 without adapter: GX85 + 14mm F2.5 WITH adapter: Very interesting and definitely makes the image wider. If I use a zoom then I can match the framing and we can get a more direct comparison. GX85 + 12-35mm F2.8 at 12mm without adapter: GX85 + 12-35mm F2.8 at ~18mm WITH adapter: GX85 + 12-35mm F2.8 at ~25mm without adapter: GX85 + 12-35mm F2.8 at 35mm WITH adapter: Very interesting results and in the direction I'm going for. As a proof of concept it definitely has promise, but I'd need to buy one correctly sized of course. BUT, then I put it on the TTartisans 50mm F1.2 and fully wide open (of course!) basically all hell breaks loose! GX85 + TTartisans 50mm F1.2 without adapter: GX85 + TTartisans 50mm F1.2 WITH adapter: It's obviously not rated for F1.2 lenses!! The bokeh is also heavily modified too, which the above images hint at, but check this out.... GX85 + TTartisans 50mm F1.2 without adapter: GX85 + TTartisans 50mm F1.2 WITH adapter: These are the sorts of things you can't do with plugins, so this is what I'd be chasing real optics to do. However, the most interesting thing about a wide angle adapter is that it's basically a speed booster, so you get more light into the lenses and you also get a wider angle of view, which means that to get the same angle of view with the adapter you can use longer lenses, which can give shallower DOF for a given f-stop. Double bonus for MFT! So, I ordered the cheapest 58mm wide angle adapter I could find, and ordered the cheapest vND I could find to fit it (as the fronts are larger than the rear which makes it larger than my good vND. Oh yeah, and I also watched a bunch of reviews of anamorphic adapters and after seeing the prices (wow!) I just ordered a Sirui 1.25x anamorphic adapter, which is the cheapest of the bunch by a long shot. I'm not really that interested in the streaks but the softening and edge distortions should be great, and it's also like a horizontal-only speed booster so will let me use longer lenses for the same FOV.