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Yesterday I watched on Sky TV the documentary Linx, a French-Swiss documentary released in January 2022, shot and directed by Laurent Geslin. It follows a lynx family in the Jura Mountains and reveals the hidden life of this elusive feline. https://mulderville.net/en/news/5009/lynx-interview-with-director-laurent-geslin Geslin is fascinated by all wildlife but was particularly drawn to the lynx due to its rarity and symbolism. Living near the Jura Mountains, he found it meaningful to focus on a local predator rather than traveling abroad. The lynx, reintroduced in the area to help control herbivore populations, represents successful coexistence between humans and nature. While he has photographed many animals (including urban foxes), making a film was a new challenge. Film allows him to tell stories in ways still photography can't. The transition required adapting techniques, such as anticipating and building cinematic shots rather than capturing single moments. He already published a photographic book about the linx. Finding and filming a wild lynx was incredibly difficult—he once spent eight months without a sighting. Lynxes are elusive and mostly nocturnal. He used lightweight gear for mobility in the mountains and learned to read animal behavior over time. All footage in Lynx features truly wild animals in their natural environment—no trained animals or artificial setups. Geslin emphasizes that the authenticity took years to achieve. Geslin hopes viewers understand the lynx’s vital ecological role. As a top predator, the lynx helps control herbivore populations, which in turn protects young forests. He sees the lynx as the “keystone” of forest health and aims to raise awareness about the importance of preserving such species. The cinematography of the film is very beautiful. It is not cinematic in the strict sense. It has a very very natural look. The documentary has a distinctly European style that I prefer. There are no cumbersome hosts, no one is pretending to risk their lives to film the animals. No spectacularization. There is very sparse voice over and lots of natural sounds, ASMR style. I would have liked to see it in the cinema. Geslin appears in Nikon magazines and I became curious about the equipment used. In all the interviews he tells about the enormous effort of following these animals for two years. I couldn't find direct references to the equipment used (I have great difficulty with the French language) then by chance I came across some short shorts on his YouTube channel and a Lumix appeared. I can't tell if in a photo it is a GH5S and the other one it's a Lumix FF. If he really shot everything with Lumix cameras, I think yes yet another demonstration of what can be done with these cameras in a genre (wildlife) almost totally monopolized by Red. Regardless of the camera used I absolutely recommend viewing.

Did you happen to receive an A7S III with faulty bluetooth for just over a grand? And a Leica Q? Maybe it will turn up in about 3 months speaking french?!

And the centre-left parties are letting it spread and enabling it. A lot of people are stupid, but a lot of them just feel that the traditional career politicians don't speak for them. Then we have 4 or 5 years of this or that liberal party in power and nothing changes. Where is Kamala Harris now? How do you lose to a fucking convicted felon? How useless do you have to be? The democrats are now holding little signs up in congress! What is that achieving? You can't play diplomacy games with a fascist thug. It's one of the reasons Putin is so powerful, he had half of them round his little finger, whilst Russian influence & money was deeply embedded in western society. The only way you remove a fascist dictator or a mafia from power is violence. The US might be about to find that out at the next election. In the meantime, this China trade-war is really ramping up towards a possible armed conflict, and not a lot of Trump voters realise the seriousness of what he's started.

Canon price increases on all products coming within 2 weeks. https://www.canonrumors.com/price-increases-coming-from-canon-usa/ This will have a ripple effect too, on second hand prices globally. It might finally be time to stop buying shit.

A sign of things to come for those outside the US. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce82391x2kyo Sony raising PS5 prices in double digit percentages. This is all to protect the ailing US market and... Just because they can. Because when there's an expectation all your rivals will have to raise prices as well due to a global force, and they all go up together that means they can get away with it as there's no cheaper competition keeping them in check. It's like a cartel, or a monopoly. Trump is the shit that just won't flush.

Yes this week.

New set of pre-order cancellations for the US. https://www.fujirumors.com/fujifilm-to-suspend-orders-for-gfx100rf-x100vi-and-x-m5-black-only/ Many more to come.

Buy anything that @Andrew Reid hoped to buy, just so he can’t.

Good to hear thanks 🙂 Concerning deliveries, I can certainly relate as I've lived most of my life in rural areas in the French mountains. I worked at a public administration which was open from 8 to 17, and I remember experiencing the infamous "recipient was not in to sign" ahah. Drove us crazy, especially the reception secretaries who often stayed on expressly during lunch time in order to collect parcels. But back then it was still "La Poste" who was in charge (often relying on temporary workers though). I've lived abroad for the last 3 years and have just moved back to France, and I kind of discover this wave of "sub-contractor drivers". I can see them jumping from door to door in their Hertz renting van and sometimes using an old "La poste" jacket who has seen more sunsets than Michel Drucker (I hope you picked up our national running jokes 😅). Still, I'm temporary located in a city and they seem to do a great job from what I see and hear (and I've had only nice and "friendly" encounters with them). Just feel annoyed for them when i see them carrying a mountain of Prime boxes for the old timers next door who appeared to have been hooked with the almost hidden check box "click here if you're absolutely sure that, despite the fantastic offer on Prime, you want to say no to such an incredible offer, and at the same time, no, we've changed our minds, if you click here you solemnly declare your willingness not to refuse what we've said and you've probably now forgotten." on the Amazon page prior to pay your order. Anyway, we'll see. I now only have to decide on what gear to buy !

All of this uncertainty is just stupid. I'm so glad I made all my business decisions re. kit before all of this kicked off. It amuses me to still look and speculate on a few things, but I won't be buying or changing anything this year and therefore can't be hit by any of this stoopidity, in CameraLand anyway.

Who will take America's place on the global stage. Clue... It won't be Belgium.

It's more than half, just not by enough. Minority rule. As all totalitarian states are. Plus, there's a lot of the sane ones that like to claim they "don't do politics" Well, politics is about to "do" you. And, you know, this fascist playbook we're seeing here in the USA is a book that is wide open. It's easy to read because it's simple. The ones that are attracted to that are insatiable. And the book has been used numerous times by bad people because it works. What's happening here is neither new or abnormal. These folks and their followers are ridiculous people that are gross, small, mentally horrible, and should be shamed for their terrible attitudes, but they've built political momentum and they're very close to reaching their orbit. The journey leads no where good. Not even for them. Finally, I like shooting f8 on an M43rd sensor. It's "Spielbergean cinema"! (gotta stay relevant to the website after that rant; cleanse the mental palette)

I know this sounds strange, but if Democrats organize and steer Trump in the right direction, it would also give him a win. Trump is trying with all his might to hit a home run when he should simply be trying to get on first base (excuse the baseball metaphor). He's going to keep *ucking up, over and over and over because he's also surrounded himself with a bunch of "yes" men and women. Trump will ONLY fall if his base of ignorant supporters feel the pain. Sadly, this needs to happen before anyone can move on, including the Democrats. If not, Trump will continue blaming the Democrats for everything under the sun and his ignorant loyalists will continue to believe every word. Pain needs to be felt. The good news is that, at the rate he's going, it might be a lot sooner than most think- it will be the moment to make a move.

I think it's not clear whether the MAGA politicians are rational or not. Clearly, many of them know little about the government of states, which explains why there is so much fumbling about and obvious mistakes and unintended consequences. However, it's clear that Trump is a con artist. He is using the power of the presidency for personal gain. Just now there are videos showing how Trump is bragging about how he and his friends made a lot of money by taking advantage of the stock market fluctuations caused by Trump's tariffs (being turned on and off). This is entirely rational behavior from a con artist and a narcissist. He's got the all-clear from the Supreme Court that he can't be held responsible for his official actions as president in court. Congress could still hold him responsible (impeachment), and the people maybe can (if there are free elections in the future) but it could very well happen that he gets away with it, and he's old enough that even if he does go into prison, he wouldn't be there for a long time. Tariff wars tend to be followed by actual wars where people die. That's why the EU was founded, by removing tariffs between European states, it was thought that wars between the states can be avoided, which has been the case so far. However, for Trump, the tariffs are just a means towards personal enrichment (and his friends' enrichment), plus getting a lot of personal attention in the media that he craves.

Yes indeed, but mainstream politicians also have their dosis to blame. When they don't do their job, opportunists or radical ones easily pop up... Ideology can be dangerous but no less, ineptitude or lack of competence. André Ventura is very talented as I had the chance to change ideas with Francisco Louçã a week ago... This left-wing politician even agreed with me. We who love a free society we are in big trouble to say the least TBH. Here is his opinion aired on national TV on XIX century Trump's tariffs next day of our long conversation me and him in person of about one hour or so the day before... Louçã is also a reputable economics professor at the university, he explains how these nonsense tariffs have no logic at all... in Portuguese though to those who know the language, you can follow his interesting criticism, pity that White House economists are dumb or too subservient, to not call it 'moron' and 'dumber than a sack of bricks' as even Musk did. Louçã refers how USD is falling despite what could be expected from: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1032490332104272 Former London-based and City University London graduate Catarina Castro (and talented right-wing economist no less) is there too and tries to contradict him but ends to fail the argument that Trump's plan is the dollar down because of the debt. It's just pure markets' fear, folks! And that's actually scaring... When inflation and uncertainty enter the things cannot end well for no one. The orange man is placing that on hold for 90 days for some reason and Musk has called Peter Navarro of those significant gross names definitely not for no reason...

And about Europe...it is not so far away from the USA insanity as it might appear. The Le Pens got very close to govern France. The far-right is making inroads on Germany. @Emanuelcould talk about the Andre's Ventura "Chega" party on Portugal. Orbán is already in charge on Hungary, as Erdogan in Turkey. Millei (an idiot as crazy as Trump, or worse) is in charge of Argentina - with 55% below the poverty line. And I already talked about Brazil. The far-right is a world cancer now.

I think it’s only polite that you disclose your affiliation to the Jehovah’s Witnesses before posting blind links to their religious material. Unless it’s just a massive coincidence that your profile contact details on here link to their jw.org domain.

Got my S1RII and like I thought, I'm a bit disappointed. Stills are great with very good resolution, the Dpreview studio test is odd because the camera is very sharp even when using not so sharp lenses like the 28-200mm. But there are better cameras for photography, AF implementation is weird, AF-S is only DFD and the buffer is a joke when shooting high fps pictures. Video quality is the same than S5II, a bit less sharpening but still the same video engine, it still looks worse than the old gen, the resolution just feels not as good, no matter the mode or resolution used the image doesn't look really sharp in a good way, lines are not straight, some details are missing like if a filter or blur in some part of the image was added. The image looks like there is a slight oil painting touch softening the image at the core. Like on the S5II the rec 709 profiles are worse than V-log. So it is a bit ironic from Lumix to say "discover unseen details" for their S1RII tagline. Because of this the moire is not too much prononced. Some will like this tradeoff. I tested Prores Raw 6K Pixel to Pixel and the image is much better, the weird processing is gone. But I can't get the image right when using Premiere Pro, colors are off, I don't think Prores Raw is really fully supported by Premiere. The crop and the data size also makes this mode hard to use and it is not supported at all by Resolve. Using the Canon R5 or Z6III for raw is much easier as the files are better supported and there is no crop. The rolling shutter is just bad when using the DR boost, I didn't think I could see it but I can see jello even with relatively slow movements. In addition 24fps is the max fps we can use with DR boost and Open Gate. I can't select 30fps, maybe a bug. I think the best modes are 6k or 4k 60fps, there is only a slight crop, worse DR because no DR boost and the image quality becomes even slighltly worse but there is not a big difference with the 30fps and the rolling shutter is better. I quickly tested the 4k 120fps and as if it isn't enough that the 4k30fps was not great, the 120fps is even worse : blurry, bad details, just unusable. When selecting Pixel to Pixel, the quality is better but again these crop make these Pixel to Pixel modes hard to use and feel like we are using a S35 camera. Stabilization is the best in the market and for me it's the main reason I still use Panasonic (with Open Gate too). But the S5II is as good ... The S1RII feels like it was created for people taking mostly photography of still subjects. And for this the camera is good, not the best DR performance but nice colors and impressive 177MP handheld mode (the image makes a very long time to create though, much longer than on the S5II). For video it comes with marketing bait as 8k and 4k 120fps. The 8k like every other modes except raw is too much processed, it has high rolling shutter when the DR boost is enabled and the 4k120fps is not good at all. Yes we can do a lot of things with this camera but with big penalties most of the time. The added Prores Raw is questionable too, the files are not supported in Resolve and the crop is really disappointing. The fact remains, however, than the S1RII is the only affordable high resolution camera with acceptable autofocus for L mount. However, I don't see anything which could attract new users to Lumix or L mount, the S5II is a much better value for Youtube and other social media creators. And the A7RIV is much cheaper and has better AF for stills. 3600€ is a lot of money but I would have happily spend a bit more to get better video engine, better rolling shutter and 8k raw. As things stand at the moment with the current firmware, I think the right price should be more about 3200€. About the reviews available online like the one from Northrup, I think the best is to always wait for some Chinese or Korean reviews, they provides much more informations and are much more unbiased than any Northrup or Undone reviews. Here is an exemple of a good and accurate review :

Flirted with the idea of selling my S1 and go for the S1RII but eventually decided to keep it for life. Parting with this kind of image quality in such a tank built body for 800€ is a crime 🙂

There is something to be said about how my S1 still comfortably covers all my needs 7 years later...

I can only assume MPB must have now seen this thread, because they have given me nothing but radio silence on all channels since a week ago. The CEO himself Matt Baker, has now ignored 3 emails after starting off all chipper. A Sony RX1R which was described as having a bit of dust on the sensor (easy to disassemble and clean, I have done it before with one), turned out to have a laser damaged sensor with a string of damaged pixels. So if you do purchase from MPB make sure you are luckier than I have been.