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It worths mentioning G9II, a sort of GH7 in a S5 body.

I’ll write a spirited defence of the X-Half when I’ve got more time but suffice to say that having bought one and actually used it they have exposed themselves yet again as knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The only principle that they follow is defined by their self-interest. If a law or moral principle exists which they think would help them gain more power or wealth, they use it argument why others should follow it. But they never feel the need to obey laws or ethical principles if it would be disadvantageous to their attempts to increase their power or wealth. Similar to the Russia which cries wolf when Western countries freeze their foreign assets, but do not see any problem in the looting & killing of Ukrainians. These are examples of people who are guided by only their self-interest and will do anything to gain more and more power and wealth. What is amazing is how the common people actually voted those people into positions of power.

A couple more stills shot with the Sirui 35. Even though I have quite a few other options, this lens usually stays on my S1RII because it’s so versatile.

No more of this slop @zlfan, thanks

I've been away from this forum for a while, since around the time I got my XT3 and thought that was the endgame camera for hybrid shooting. In many ways, I was right, until this summer when it dropped and cracked the screen. The first and hopefully last time I've ever dropped a camera. I sent it away to be repaired, however, after paying the €200 to replace the screen, I went to collect it and was informed by the front desk that they don't actually have the parts for the repair, so they've upgraded me to an XT5 at no extra cost. That's a service I can get behind and they've for sure earned a life-long customer with that! Anyone got any starter tips, or lesser known, but great features to look outfor with this camera?

I have the 35/50/75 Saturn in E mount and haven't experienced any focusing issues on the A1, and of course that's with no Desqueeze support. It does have a bit better EVF than the Panasonic cameras, but I haven't found the EVF to be a night and day difference. I own the 35 & 50 Saturn in L mount and have had great results on the S1RII. The 35 isn't quite as well corrected as the longer lenses, so it has a bit of character, especially against the light. Still, none of the Sirui lenses can rival the results I get with my favorite anamorphic adapters, but there is something to be said for simplicity and reliability. Also - I'm not sure if the S5II was included, but the recent update for the S1II/S1RII now provides 1.6x desqueeze. Still attached from the 35 Saturn on S1RII.

I think people see politics these days as a form of show-biz entertainment soap opera drama, what a surprise they are going to get when the frogmen smash their door in next.

Cheap zoom lenses (and especially kit-zooms) are often the BEST lenses. I wrote a whole thread on it here including examples and comparisons, but the summary is: They're cheaper than almost any alternative They're flexible and very fast to use, because zooming is always faster than changing primes They improve your edits because you can get greater coverage and variety of shots in the same amount of time / setups They are in the "sweet spot" between being too sharp and looking clinical and being too vintage, but their aberrations are often actually very aligned with the qualities of vintage lenses people want, just dialled down to a modest amount They have smaller apertures so are easier to focus / less prone to focus errors and don't need as much ND in brighter situations They often have native AF and are kept updated with firmware updates They often have OIS Those with variable apertures are much closer to being constant DOF, where the more you zoom in the smaller the aperture gets, counteracting the effects of the longer focal-length, which makes your footage more consistent They don't get a lot of love online, but that's because most of the discussion online is about the things that are THE MOST of something (the sharpest, the newest, the biggest, the most expensive, etc) and being cheap and good is only really attractive to people who actually shoot in the real world and where a happy middle ground is desirable. My most used lens is a variable aperture zoom lens, despite me owning many much "better" lenses.

To expand on it, let's take 24 frames or one second at film rate. With film you have 24 full images, motion blur is kept in each image, not smeared netween them. With ML 5D raw, Alexa Pro Res, Red Raw, Blackmagic cameras etc, you have 24 distinct images, individually compressed either losslessly or mildly lossily. Motion blur is kept within each image. With AVCHD and other Long GOP CODECs, the I-frame image is divided into pools of pixels for analysis across time. only some frames are whole, the I frames, the rest refer the different pixel pools to the I frame and usually to a frame in the middle of the group too. In order to remove data the codec only moves what it has to. Your one second may have only two complete images, the rest are created as best can be from the other frames, with huge changes causing pixellation and blocking due to so little data headroom. On top of this, the red-channel resolution is quartered, and the blue channel halved in 4:2:0, so the spatial resolution for movement is cut down, as well as the temporal resolution. In short, the plastic movement you get from many implementations of such long GOP CODECs reflects the methods use in compression. Motion blur is also smudged and blurred by chroma sub-sampling (4:2:0:) and by interframe compression.

Finally someone has done it https://www.benro.com/en/prelaunch/NE1-nd-filter.html It has a nifty bluetooth controller with auto-AE as well. Curious to see how nice it is to use, but no word on pricing yet.

I have an opinion on that... https://www.eoshd.com/opinion/chris-and-jordan-select-sigma-bf-fuji-x-half-and-sony-fx2-as-worst-cameras-of-the-year-just-goes-to-show-that-some-people-dont-have-a-single-creative-brain-cell/

I find the timing for this article pretty funny, I was recently re-working a few files from my old E-m1x and was reminded of how much I liked the look and feel of them, Yes they are technically inferior to the current generation but there is something about them. So just picked up an OM system brand Olympus OM1 and 12-40 this past weekend..... waiting for them to arrive from Japan!

Interesting to look at the trends... Canon is extending their lead over Sony. Nikon is only at 5.56%... Had expected them to be closer to Sony, after all the Z6 / Z8 series seem popular, right now DJI is a growing threat. Blackmagic are slipping back as the bigger companies cannibalise their niche of advanced video features and RAW recording. Sigma is holding steady, but obviously this revenue relates 99% to lenses, there cameras are a very small niche. Fuji is steadily going up... Their stuff especially X-mount is not really Lensrental's target market but more pros are seeing the benefits of GFX Panasonic pretty flat at 2% mark, it's a poor showing considering how good their specs are. Leica are pretty stagnant despite lots of new releases, SL3, Q3, etc. Revenue from RED halved, Sachtler also down hinting at problems we know exist in professional filmmaking

Those last 3 shots, very nice.

I own the Blazar adapter and have used it extensively. I like that it can go wide, most 40-45 vintage lenses will cover full frame, especially if they have 52mm threads. It will even work with a few older 35-70 zooms past about 40mm. It's a little dreamy on the sides when using wider lenses, but once you go to around 75mm, it cleans up across the frame. It also has great focusing performance - with the taking lens set at infinity, you can do it all with the focus ring on the adapter and even wide open, infinity is spot on with every lens I've tried. Below are a few samples I have handy. First two shots are the 50 Nokton around F8. With my copy of the adapter, no amount of stopping down cleans up the edges on 40-50mm lenses. 3rd Shot is the 58 Biotar. Next 3 shots are the 75 Nokton. Image is great across the frame when stopped down a bit, but there is some fringing with the lens wide open.

Same. But, if they added raw they'd change the whole ballgame for me.

well as an X-Half owner I have to say, it's a very fun camera to use, overpriced, yes! A bunch of years back, they voted the Canon XC-10 the worst camera and lens of the year, and to date that camera did so well for me and paid for itself over and over again! I don't shoot puddles! am

Got any shots from that?

Nice frog, thought it was real for a second 🙂 I have recently picked up another 'faulty' anamorphic from Sirui, cost 160 euros and this time is the Sirui 50mm T2.9 1.6x anamorphic for Sony E-mount. Repairing it was quite easy as whoever put it in the spares & repairs bin doesn't seem to know that the anamorphic squeeze and 'de-centered internal elements' are not the same thing 🙂 It's definitely not in same league as an Iscorama for character but it still has a cinematic look and much less distortion than the little Saturn from earlier. https://store.sirui.com/blogs/guides/full-frame-anamorphic-sirui-50mm-t2-9-1-6x-lens-review?srsltid=AfmBOooPLqqtjgePHhwDkxLrA3fHpbTeyJOCB631Vf1LeSC6Fh2TRP1N I think for $450 it's a bargain really.

Oly cameras are charming. I have had plenty come and go. I don't like NOT having at least one. Currently own a EM10iii. The intangibles just make them "funner" to use.

The original Olympus OM3 was one of the finest cameras I ever owned. Didn’t need a battery except for the meter (if I recall correctly). Even seeing “OM” brings back memories of long gone days… ironically given the debates about MFT, FF s16 etc, I sold it to get a Bronica MF. Anyway, sorry, totally irrelevant to the post.

I may do a comparison on the blog about the E-M1X and OM1. The E-M1X is... different.

I had one for a while and whilst I didn’t much care for the video compared with my full-frame Lumix at the time (S1H), I did like the stills files, but most of all, the form factor; the weight, ergos, build and sheer ‘rightness in the hand’ of the thing. Also the lenses, both the fast primes and the zooms. If I was ever going to do 4/3rds, it would be the OM-1 without having to think about it.

I've been enjoying his stories of the celebrity portrait shoots from the 90s and 2000s For a start the guy's work is fantastic, a great eye and a great instinct... superb really, and fascinating to hear his creative re-telling of the shoots. But in these videos he's also really candid about the stars, and their dreaded publicists / PR handlers A mixture of great... to really lacking respect for the photographer's art. The Paul McCartney one is pretty shocking but not as bad as Hilary Clinton 🙂 Love the PJ Harvey stuff though.

G9 II has a few gotchas: * no fan, so overheats * audio nerfed so you can’t use TC1 / tentacle etc * no hdmi out when recording with hybrid zoom Otherwise, I really liked it but it’s gone to MPB and been replaced by GH7.

He popped up in my feed a few months ago and I’m really enjoying it too.

To misquote Niemöller: ”first they came for the media. I sat and watched. They came for the gays, the trans and those who are different. I sat and watched. They came for those they claimed don’t belong. I sat and watched. Then they came for me. There was no one left to hear my cries…”

I wish I could sit in the corner with a hot chocolate while someone wise told me that we are over the worst of it… then I remember that Vance waits to inherit, Farage hovers around No10 like flies over a corpse and… unfortunately it does seem that sitting back and ignoring it is no longer a sensible option.

I had a similar experience with this post. He's done hundreds of worse deeds just a year in to his second term, but this got me particularly upset. He's scum for the sake of being scum.

Was it all a bit of a sham? EOSHD investigates... https://www.eoshd.com/news/users-are-complaining-openai-wreaked-sora-2-eoshd-takes-a-look-at-what-happened/

Dear @zlfan These posts are like spam. So I am going to put your account on pause while I look into whether you're a bot. Too many incidences of low quality posting recently and I have to make an editorial decision to protect the place, ok?

None of those images show the full dynamic range. It's a low light test more than dynamic range.

It honestly gives me a "plastic feel". I don't know, it's like the texture of the things appearing in the video can't be related to anything "alive", anything that materially exists and so can transmit an impression of actual feeling. And on a side note, that disappearing shoe... The channel's description : H E L P

To everyone I offended this year... work on yourself so I don't have to do it again next year. If after all you have seen, you still drink the Elon koolaid you deserve all the personal attacks coming to you. I have absolutely zero respect for your opinions or your feelings on the matter. It is entirely your responsibility that you feel insulted by what I said above even though it was objective fact and not at all personal. Elon is not a rocket scientist. He's a fucking twat face, alleged Nazi drug addict. I suppose you think his little fascist bromance with Trump was furthering the future of Planet Earth as well?

I don't remember Bill Clinton's government combing through a non-US citizen's personal politics at customs. It makes tourism a bit shit, doesn't it? If I had to go to NAB or to the US for work I would just not bother. Really I didnt know that It was him was it? Have you ever considered it might instead be the thousands of employees of these companies backed by billions in venture capitalist funds and government NASA contracts. Also as far as "the world" and "the future" goes, they haven't moved the needle that far. SpaceX is just a private NASA contractor and they haven't even gone to the moon. Tesla is a failing car company, completely outgunned by China. Starlink consists of some satellites that ruin photos of the sky. And Neural link is an allegedly deeply immoral pig experiment. No. Critical thinking, and criticism is not the issue. Gullible bastards are.

Same here. I had to leave my PRO account after 15 years. I didn't renew after what they did to the European accounts, who pay the subscription like all users worldwide. I hope they fail miserably. I moved everything on Youtube. Such a shame.

Yes my whole comment was on a "joke tone" and ironic as a mean to try to be "light" given the harsh and unbelievable reality we are all witnessing right now. I could've add "marple sirup" and "advanced Artic position related to Denmark" in the "unless they contain" list, that would have been more obvious I was being light. Sorry, not always easy to convey humor with text on sad topics (and not in your mother's tongue🫠). I need to rely more on spot-on British humor Gif like @BTM_Pix does😅

I definitely like the way these look better but I still thought the 35 Saturn image looked good! To me, I'm just grateful that there are more options out there, as anamorphic has been out of my price range for a long time. And they'll only get better as they fine tune them.

The Chinese are great but they need to watch this And this...

I have one and it really is a good camera when it comes to the image quality. I love the image it makes. It's brought my own filmmaking to another level. It's not a run and gun camera though. More of like using a 16mm film camera. Nothing automatic. Manual everything. The dream of an all-in-one isn't quite true with it though. You need to rig it out with an EVF. (Although I don't have and have never used the shark fin shaped viewer with the mirror so maybe that's okay.) I used to see them come up on eBay a few times a year but now they rarely do. And people are asking US$11000 with accessories. (I also notice that nobody is bidding on them at that price and the listing ends without any bids, then gets relisted.) I occasionally see them listed for about US$5000 but they don't last long at that price. They're a good camera, worth $5000 but not worth $10000. I think that it's no longer such a unique camera image-wise and you can get a close enough image with a used Alexa or Blackmagic Production camera 4K and be making your movies. (Still if one came up and you could afford it, get it.) If you're handy you could make your own using the same sensor. Check out this project: https://github.com/lafauxbolex https://www.youtube.com/@LaFauxBolexDigitalCinemaCamera/videos

By the way the collapse in price of the vintage stuff is extraordinary, you can get an Iscorama close to 500 euros now, almost back to 2010 pre-DSLR video prices

Yeah, thanks this shot is exactly what I'm talking about - the muted way it handles the sun is not what a good cinema anamorphic should look like. They don't have the big stretched ovals in the horizontal flare, the fatter flare lines and blooming. All these kids putting down pretty significant $$$$ for all this sterile stuff from China No question is it more practical though.... But better image it ain't 🙂

In terms of colour in LOG and rec.2020 the only difference between cameras these days is how easy (or otherwise) they are to grade, for example C-LOG on the old Canon 1D C was so easy, it only needed the addition of contrast and barely any colour grading at all to look cinematic. Now there are massive differences between LUTs compared to between LOG curves and colour. So when you see all these reviews, tests and comparisons you are just seeing a LUT! It's almost comical really, nobody gets under the skin of what the camera is doing - they're just putting their grading skills and LUTs on show. And the codecs are all so good... no more 8bit banding. I compared the Sony a1 SLOG3 H265 8K to Nikon Z9 NRAW 8K and there was nothing in it really, not even in terms of noise and shadow detail. You could do just as big a grade or white balance shift on the H265 footage as you could with NRAW. Now the way I like to think of RAW as useful is as follows: - As a way to bypass poor camera image processing... Hardly needed now... In the old days, light and day difference between something like 5D Mark II compressed H.264 and uncompressed Magic Lantern Raw (in Cinema DNG), even at 1080p it was a different league of image quality. - As a way to increase image quality with drawback of huge file sizes. Now we get if we're lucky a 1-2% increase in image quality for a 1000% increase in file size (over H.265 10bit) - As a way to turn off in-camera sharpening and white balance (do it in post). However image processing has got so flexible you can turn sharpening off in LOG... look how smooth and natural Canon LOG looks on the old 1D C or EOS R6 III 10bit H.265 for example - A file format to show to clients that says you're serious 🙂 And we all know why the majority of videographers are fawning over raw delivery whereas ARRI ALEXA DPs casually go round doing it all in ProRes That is another comparison the YouTube bros refuse to do well... the ALEXA ProRes vs ARRI RAW and Canon LOG vs RAW I haven't seen a single good comparison!

I've yet to see any that have the rendering of an Iscorama or Soviet era LOMO, or the TOTL Hollywood lenses. They need to dial the coating down a lot and get rid of the very thin chickenwire flare. Anamorphic flare is much more than that as an aesthetic.

I sincerely hope they correct this very fast. From my use, I would not say it is as bad as people are saying, but until now the h265 from my Nikons has been very very good.

Vimeo is in the process of deleting ALL my videos, due to their new policy of deleting their entire library of content for ALL non-current users without an active Pro paid subscription. Also, about 90% of my Vimeo was nurfed by the copyright music shambles, where Vimeo did the 3-strikes thing and they delete your entire account. So to avoid that, back in the day, I just decided to make these videos private, and unlisted. I have not got round to putting it all on YouTube yet, but perhaps I should?

Great find! I have been using these lenses since Sirui introduced them with the earlier/larger Venus series. The new Saturn series that you reference is an improvement across the board...not only are they smaller & lighter, but the optical qualities are also improved. I have even used the 35 for astrophotography, as it's pretty wide on 3:2 open gate, with good performance across the frame wide open. I feel they are really a nice compromise between size and performance and I appreciate the 1.6x squeeze. If you don't like the pincushion distortion, it's really easy to correct back to neutral or even barrel in Resolve and you don't lose any of the image, as you are expanding the frame when you make the correction.