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I like this way of marketing to give the camera to youtubers with low number followers and turns out they're talented and need more recognition.

Had a chance to have a look at one in the flesh. It feels good in the hand and the screen is everything that everyone has already said it is. The overall size of the camera is even more compact than I thought it would be, particularly when they are displaying it alongside the next one up in the Nikon RED range ! I was sorely tempted at the price here which works out at £1650 including the 24-70mm f4 lens for visitors. I’m here for a few more weeks so maybe I might buckle but the issue for me is that they had a Z8 at the next display and for an old fart like me that just appeals more, especially in light of the is it/isn’t it stuff about the RAW and the file extensions etc. I might just sit this out (again) for another year to see how the dust settles with firmware updates for the ZR and actually the Z6III as that might be the compromise play for me, although the Z8 will likely still win out. So, ultimately, I was able to put the ZR down and walk away fairly easily. Unexpectedly, the one I had far more difficulty walking away from the was the much maligned Fujifilm X-Half. Kinky.

I would absolutely use it and as above, it would be my first choice, clean sheet. The ZR/Nikon probably doesn't quite have the AF of Sony and it might not quite have the IBIS of LUMIX, but we are really beginning to split hairs these days when it comes to spec and performance. It's compact, has possibly THE best lens selection (IMO, there is no 'possibly' about it, - it just does including near native adaptation of Sony E glass via Megadap) and it's e Shutter only approach on the ZR and Z8 would not be an issue for me as it is with LUMIX where in certain lighting conditions, it's shit (for stills). Give me a pair of ZR's, a single Z8 and 3 lenses of my choice, 1x monopod and 1x tripod and weddings/events would be a breeze. No better than my current LUMIX set up, just a sideways one and one I would not hesitate to use. I could make the same argument for Sony and Canon. It just comes down to personal choice.

It makes sense to change cameras and not brands! I’ve been interested in the S1iiE as it does resolve a couple of things that I dislike about the S5ii. The S1iiE’s screen and evf would be much more comfortable for me. Like you I prefer the screen behind the lens. Whilst in general I prefer 1 camera for video and one for photo that’s not always possible. The photo/video switch would be a real upgrade. I have written the S1ii off for me as it won’t handle the heat here in Madrid but from what I’ve seen the S1iiE handles the heat better. So I’m thinking of changing a S5ii for the S1iiE and maybe picking up a S9 if I can find a good deal.

So you feel it in your bones that something is wrong with society and that corporations are doing a lot of harm, turning the frogs gay and so on. What was it specifically about the aquarium exactly that triggered these feelings? The science of fish? Some naughty toads? A pink goldfish? The financial institutions, like it or not, along with food and oil, are needed for civilisation. I'm not saying they can't or shouldn't be reformed, and refocused so the interests of the people are put first ahead of offshore tax dodging profit-making. It is true that neo liberalism and big business has failed to make society or communities better, it has failed us and the environment, they are parasitical and we really need someone to turn to in these dark times who can do something about it. I am just confused as to why that hero has to be a pedophile rapist with criminal convictions and fraudulent businesses, a fascist and a racist, old as hell, fat and stupid, born into privilege, a cold heartless landlord and a cultural wasteland of a person who likes to fawn over supermodels and traffic women. No names of course. A clue... it's not Bill Gates or the boss of Pepsi. Ah yes the NGOs and USAID are at the root of all evil aren't they wanting to end world hunger. Ah yes Russia that hero state where the quality of life for most people barely rises above the grade of heavy depression and alcoholism, and for good reasons. A shit economy, stripped of its dignity by a mafia state, which likes to routinely arrest and murder it's own citizens, and one that likes to spend countless billions on a hybrid war with Europe and the UK rather than spending it on fucking hospitals. You really believe he's moving away from the imperialist clutches of wall street? What are the actual things which have occurred to suggest wall street is weaker under Trump? He's had 4 years 2016-2020 in power and now again embarking on another term and as far as I can see the stock market has never been more of a bubble, more damaging and more highly inflated and inequality of wealth never worse especially in the US. And this is not me spouting an opinion, there's factual evidence for it, not that you'd trust any of the journalists who'd trojan the inconvenient truth into your pathetic little fantasy land.

Sadly a lot of the British public distrust it as well thanks to the constant brainwashing they've been subjected to by social media and Russian bots. I see the influence of the BBC outside the West as an attempt to spread the UK's voice, and system of democracy, and of course in some places this isn't welcome and will never be. The purpose of the BBC is not to please everyone all over the world all at once, they were set up only to serve the British public at home and abroad, i.e. with World Service radio and the BBC news website, if someone in Afghanistan or Turkey doesn't agree with a couple of programmes then so be it, not our problem. At the same time, people in other countries are well within their rights to have different opinions, and to tell the BBC to fuck off out of their airwaves. Equally, the Americans should fuck off out of UK politics too and leave us to it. However when it comes to some BBC content like David Attenborough people in other countries would do well to watch it. Maybe they would then have a less appalling attitude to animals.

Lenses to me are now more important than bodies and have been for some time since camera tech reached a certain point. The best glass for my needs is all in Sony E Mount…which is a bit of a bummer with LUMIX bodies 😂 Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 is better than Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 which is also good but having had both, I prefer the Tamron. Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 is relatively compact and light compared with the 70-200 chonkers available in L Mount. Sony 50-150mm f2 is waaaaaay better than the Tamron 35-150mm f2/2.8 because A. it’s internal zooming and B. it’s constant aperture and C. it is optically better. Never mind the super chonker that is the Samyang 35-150mm f2/2.8, the Tamron’s fugly stepsister. Then we have the Sony 24-50mm f2.8 G which if paired with the 50-150 would make a superb indoor/outdoor option for my needs. Hmmm, maybe I am talking myself into a flip… I’m seriously tempted…

Ha! Ans it's said one is supposed to get more conservative as they get older. For me, I just can't shake capital being the vehicle for fascism. Souped up and hot-rodded to fly down the drag strip. And, yeah, since pseudo-capitalism is now global and we're on the verge on climate collapse? Woo boy. Buckle up. Yup, sure is hard not to be conspiratorial about it all. As someone once said, have a nice day "you fucking dumbasses" 😉

Yeah good move approaching indie RED shooters rather than your usual hybrid / YT influencer. Great review with strong footage. More I think of it, ZR is the perfect travel cam, street shooter.

I wish someone in Nikon or RED explain what they did and what these codes actually do. NRAW show less purple noise at extreme underexposure but colors are all over the place. R3D NE is in a pool of purple noise, but colors are intact.

I will always remember what a Leica manager in Germany said to me, which went like this: “I have read your publication today, and I have to admit that the tone is from my point of view unreasonable. However, we respect that journalists can make up their mind independently. But I think even for your reputation within the worldwide video community this article might not be helpful.” Continues on front page: https://www.eoshd.com/news/same-career-psychopaths-who-sold-out-filmmaking-are-destroying-our-political-parties-and-the-bbc/

You don't love anything except huffing those "alternative truthers" farts. I guess when you eat enough of the shit pies those types of people serve you, you eventually forget what shit tastes like and start enjoying it.

The new Canon RF 45mm 1.2 should fit ur taste.. similar rendering as the old EF 50mm 1.2 but much lighter and abit smaller.

Summary = the sky is not falling in after all. We still wait to see however if the S1H ever gets replaced. I haven’t watched the hour and 20 minute video as I’m not that interested but I would guess that kind of thing would neither be confirmed nor denied and a vague, “things to come/watch this space” at best?

Viltrox joined L mount a little later than those other systems, but I'm certain lenses will start appearing quickly. Totally understand. There are valid schools of thought here: 1) the data image, change in post; 2) WYSIWYG. I also lean more for the latter, especially for stuff I'm too lazy to edit. As things move forward, I'm understanding that most of the manufacturers are producing for the optically "perfect" image because they can. We're not seeing those headline lenses so much anymore like that Nikon 50mm 0.95 brick to showcase their engineering prowess. If they do that, it's to give us affordable lenses at previously unthought of focal lengths or smaller sizes. Lumix has a boring set of lenses that work very well and they can be workhorses, just nothing really amazing or ridiculously small (i.e. 14mm f/2.5, 20mm f/1.7). They insulted all of their users with that 26mm and I want to go back in time and erase its existence.

There’s also another camera in the LUMIX lineup that barely anyone talks about and that is the S1IIE. I overlooked it myself when it was announced as I already had S5II’s and the S1II and especially S1RII looked a whole lot more interesting…and arguably are, unless… Price + you prefer the updated body and a few other specs over the S5II and in the UK, a couple of places such as WEX and Park are doing them at £500 off, ie, £1800 none grey import. Compared with my S9 which I have now decided to replace (it isn’t robust enough and I’ve had too many niggly issues with it trying to use it as a pro tool) and the S1IIE seems to make the most sense to me. LCD is in line with the body and not sticking out of the side. Hurrah. MUCH better built than the S9 but hardly a chonker. 6k 50/60p in 2:4-1 CinemaScope and before you spit your dummy out, drop that on a 16:9 timeline, it’s about a 1.3x crop and on a 2:1 timeline, only about a 1.1x crop compared with the S5II/X with it’s 1.5x crop. And you can do that log gop 420 300mpbs or 422 all intra 800mpbs which is not tooooo large. No it’s not open gate and I was all for open gate until a few weeks ago and the end of another season when I came to 2 conclusions: 1: Divorce stills from video in the same unit and go back to dedicated stills or video units. 2: Use something else for the fast turn around social stuff such as a Pocket 3. Not pushed the button yet and things may change, but I think an S5IIE could become my run & gun unit with S5II on sticks and either a single or pair of S1RII’s for stills, dependent on a set of primes or a single all in one 28-105mm f2.8. I really can’t be arsed with any large scale brand flips, but swapping a body and a couple of lenses is pretty straightforward and low cost.

Lightly sand the front element and smear a bit of Vaseline around the edge et voila, instant character! I know what you mean though Phil. They are optically quite clinical and the most boring things to look at for sure. For video AF, they are the best option though. For a margin more character, the f2 Sigmas have it at the expense of a tiny bit of AF. Then there is the rest of the stuff where it’s trading or losing AF for character gain. I personally prefer to have the better starting point and add character in post but then some character is inherent in the lens so… There’s always a trade off! That new 40mm f2 might just be the sweet spot…

To be honest it's the less than stellar but fast & small third party lenses that I crave. For Fujifilm you have the Viltrox f/1.4 & f/1.7 primes. For Sony you have a ton of smaller lenses like the 24 f/2.8, 35mm f/2.8 or 40mm f/2.5 but also again third party AF lenses from Viltrox, TTartisan, etc. I realize that the 1.8 primes from Panasonic are great, but they're not checking my criteria, I'd prefer them optically a bit worse but smaller with more character. I remember when the vision for mirrorless cameras was that you could get lenses at the same performance at a smaller size... and now nearly everything that releases is a really big, technically ideal lens at a high price. I used to like lenses like the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM which were okish but had interesting rendering over the great but huge Sigma 50mm 1.4. Guess I'm just an old man yelling at clouds.

I forgot the Sigma 28-105mm f2.8… Combine that with the S1RII in hybrid zoom mode and there are two very useable crops the first being 147mm which if memory serves is around 18mp the second being 210mm at around 12mp so both very useable for stills use. The Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 also makes for a very compact lens and with the same crop factor, 98mm and 140mm. Shoot Jpeg + raw, the crop only applies to the Jpeg…I think but with video, it’s a proper punched in crop. 4k only though. Doesn’t work in 6k or 8k modes. As things currently stand…but anything could happen within the next 6 months 😉 my plan is to pick up the 28-105 as an outdoor lens to complement the 28-70 as my indoor lens (mainly stills but some hybrid use each) and the new LUMIX 24-60mm f2.8 purely for video on my other S1RII. That latter lens will be more like a 29-73 with the combo of settings I am using (5.9k 50p + standard electronic IBIS). Perfect focal range for my run & gun needs 👌

I'm a huge outlier here, since my lenses are exclusively either manual cinema lenses, or lightweight travel lenses. For the former, I still pick EF mount. For the latter, I'm not sure anyone makes anything quite like the 18-40. I love it.

Agree ^ mostly... The only area really lacking for me is the space between 100-200mm where there's a bit of a gap. Between Sigma & Panasonic themselves, they have it covered with primes ie, for most peoples needs, most of the time, those f1.8's. Sigma offer their f2's which have a bit more 'character'. Sigma also do the f1.2/1.4's and Leica do their stupidly priced offerings. The zooms are all very good. In fact I can't really think of a bad L Mount lens other than that stoopid f8 thing they launched with the S9. The only thing missing for me is a either a longer sibling to the Sigma 28-45mm f1.8 (such as a 45-90mm f1.8) and/or a rival to the Sony 50-150mm f2. A 50-135mm f1.8 with internal zoom would be appreciated and if Sony can do the slightly longer 50-150 with f2, then Sigma could probably pull off an f1.8. I know the Samyang 35-150mm exists but it's not got the greatest rep and has been hit with the ugly stick. Or is the ugly stick. As things stand, I am probably going to trade my 35mm and 50mm for the Sigma 28-45mm f1.8 because although it's obviously bigger and heavier than either, it doesn't require a choice of lens but a twist of the wrist and optically is just as good based on my experience. I don't really like the 18mm though. It has a great rep but for me it's too wide. I don't really like anything wider than 28 but it has its uses in certain situations, so I need to keep it. It's just above 50 I have the issue... I I don't want or need a 70-200 but something within that 50-150 would be so much better (as long as it's not the Samyang and preferably does not extend when zooming) but I'd settle for even 90mm as above.

It's not that bad in L-mount. We now have a small 40mm F/2 from TTartisan, but it could be better. Most of the lenses from Panasonic make a lot of sense- a full set of clinical 18, 24, 35, 50, 85, 100mm lenses at f/1.8 (except for the 100mm). They're the same size, rendering, in-camera corrections, usage and everything you'd expect. No other camera maker has that. The zooms are also great. Sure, no Tamron, but should that be the deal-breaker? Personally, I'm no longer going for "clinical and sharp". Give me anything with character- that's what I want; set yourself apart a little. Clinical = boring in my book. Still, I have many of the primes, but I almost always take out the vintage stuff when shooting for myself (not a pro). Also, mark my words, L mount will win in the end with lens selection. What lenses are you after?

On my last trip I shot with the GH7 >> Voigtlander 42.5mm F0.95 >> Sirui 1.25x anamorphic adapter, and was really taken with the images, which remind me of 90s/00s cinema. But the setup was big, heavy, and didn't have as much shallow DOF as I wanted as I was shooting a lot of compositions at a distance without having many/any things in the foreground. Optically it's equivalent to a 68mm F1.5 on FF. A good horizontal FOV, although it's a 'between' amount and I would go wider and crop rather than going tighter. Physically it's large and heavy, weighing 2.1kg 4.6lb and with the 82mm front gave me very little stealth factor, further justifying shooting street with such a long focal length. Despite me shooting in busier areas and stopping when I first come upon a composition, people clocked me very frequently. In terms of the brief, I think that I want: - similar horizontal FOV (H-FOV) - shallower DOF - similar softness (the Voigts are nicely soft wide open, taking off the digital edge beautifully) - funkier bokeh, preferably stretched consistently vertically rather than swirly / cats-eye - smaller / lighter - not thousands of dollars I'm pondering how to get there, I've figured a few potential pathways... Vintage speedbooster - GH7 >> Speedbooster >> ~50mm F1.4 I already own a M42-MFT speed booster, which combined with a ~50mm F1.4 lens would give a 71mm F2.0 FOV. This is slightly deeper DOF but is only a AUD200 or so, and when combined with an oval insert, can give great bokeh. This is a proof-of-concept shot with a M42-MFT speed booster and a 50mm F1.8 lens with a couple of bits of paper stuck to the rear lens element: This is definitely a vintage / funky approach, but isn't so fast. This leads us to the elephant in the room, which is that while MFT is excellent at a great many things, very shallow DOF isn't really one of them. We are using a 0.71x speed booster already but need to decrease the crop-factor further. Vintage speedbooster + wide-angle adapter - GH7 >> Speedbooster >> ~50mm F1.4 >> Wide-angle adapter If we add a 0.7x wide-angle adapter (WAA), we end up with a crop factor of 0.995, which is essentially FF. This seems promising as TTartisan noticed that everyone-and-their-dog wanted a longer telephoto lens to go with their M42 Helios, and gifted us an M42 75mm F1.5 swirly bokeh master. Combined with the SB + WAA that gives us a 75mm F1.5 which is a bit longer than I'd want, but is interesting. BUT, and it's a big but (I cannot lie) Spherical wide-angle adapters seem to be universally rubbish. I bought two ultra-cheap WAA and they were rubbish (when shot with a fast lens wide-open anyway) which is to be expected, but recently I snapped up a Kodak Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 0.7x 55mm adapter, which should be a fine example of the breed, and it was also pretty rubbish. Certainly, more 'vintage' than I am looking for. Subsequent research lead me to conclude that people stopped making these adapters once the mirrorless revolution happened and people stopped using fixed-lens camcorders. I'd be happy to be proven wrong..... However, there is one type of wide-angle adapter that is available with modern optical standards, and that's the anamorphic ones, which leads us to... More anamorphic - Blazar Nero 1.5x anamorphic adapter This is probably my ideal anamorphic adapter in many ways (but one) as it's smaller and lighter than the Sirui, isn't quite as sharp (I don't mind) and has more squeeze to-boot. If I use it on my 42.5mm Voigtlander lens it widens the HFOV compared to the Sirui (not ideal) and also doesn't change the DOF. If we combine its 0.667x HFOV boosting with my 0.71x speed booster we get a crop factor of 0.95 - wider than FF! So, combined with that 75mm F1.5 TTartisan lens, that's a 71mm F1.4 equivalent. Compared to the 68mm F1.5 we started with that's only a slight improvement in DOF, and only a slight improvement in size and weight, but we've paid the better part of AUD2000 to do it. ...and for that kind of money, we can just buy a FF camera. Go Full Frame - but what to buy?? Remembering our original goal, the option that stood out to me was the Lumix S9. It's small, has a flippy screen, and is within consideration at around AUD1500 used. The OG S5 is similarly priced and I hear it has some good mojo. There might be others too. Ideally, I'd go with a smaller body, as if I'm paying this much for a new system, starting with a GH7-sized body seems counter-productive. The S9 is very similarly sized to my GX85 and here's a comparison of sizes... [GH7 + Voigt 42.5/0.95 + Sirui] vs [GX85 + SB + 50mm F1.8]: The weights are similar - those setups are 2110g vs 800g - more than 2.5x the weight. In terms of lens options, this is a world I am unfamiliar with, but considering we've just blown most of our budget on the body (and spare batteries etc) lenses can't cost too much. Considering I am inclined towards cheap/funky/vintage MF lenses, I figure the options include things like: Vintage 50mm F1.4 lenses (like a Takumar) on a dumb adapter The swirly 75mm F1.5 TTartisans on a dumb adapter The 7artisans 75mm F1.4 in L-mount These aren't shallower DOF at all! FF is a lie! (I kid.. well sort-of anyway) Even if I spring for more expensive options like a 50mm F0.95 that still has deeper DOF due to the shorter focal length, and it doesn't look like F0.95 lenses for FF are affordable for anything other than 50mm. If I start adding serious weight again with things like a Sirui 150mm T2.9 1.6x and then attach my 1.25x to it, I'd end up with a 150mm T2.9 2x anamorphic lens, which has a HFOV of 75mm T1.45, but the combo weighs almost as much as my GH7 rig does in total! No wonder the replacement series from Sirui were made from carbon fibre! Perhaps the only real jump in shallower DOF is to combine FF with an F1.4 prime and an anamorphic adapter, like FF + MF 85/1.4 + Sirui 1.25x adapter which would give an HFOV of 68mm F1.1, which is definitely faster. If this was the S9 then it would be smaller and lighter, but is still 75% of the weight and most of the size of my GH7 rig. But I suspect there are better more 'inventive' options. I want cheaper and lighter and I'm willing to 'pay' for it in image quality (actually I'd PREFER less sharp glass with more funk) so there have got to be other paths too. One I can see is to continue the speed-boosting pathway with a L-mount speed booster like 0.71 EF-L / FD-L / PL-L / NIK-L and then pair it with a ~100mm FF lens that might have a greater than FF image circle and not only get a shallower DOF but also get to see some funk at the edges (or even the actual edge of the circle which might be really cool). Unfortunately vintage 100mm F1.4 lenses don't seem to be common or cheap. My current leanings are to accept defeat and just go with the [GH7 >> M42-MFT SB >> oval cutout >> vintage 50mm F1.4 Takumar] option, which gives a 71mm F2.0 FOV, and only costs a couple of hundred dollars.

But seriously, a less than 1 minute calculation says 13k investment vs probably about a 6-7k sale price on my current gear = not happening. Even if I just went the stills side it would be around 6.5k - 4k, so a 2.5k flip and…actually that might be doable in early 2026 😂 I don’t really want to go back to mixed brand systems but at the start of this year I was using Sony + Nikon for stills and LUMIX for video and I could easily carry on with LUMIX for video as I think it’s still probably my best option for that, but swapping a single S1RII plus 4x primes for a single Z8 plus 2x zooms could work…and it would give me the longer lens option that doesn’t really work for me within L Mount. For me, the only real weakness in L Mount for me is not having something like the Sony 50-150mm f2 internal zoom as that is pretty much ultimate event lens right there. In fact, unless physics can be defied, I can’t see anything more compact and as fast, being possible, but if Sigma could kindly take up that challenge…

One word: Megadap

Generally speaking, FF is going to give you lot more options. TTartisans make a 75mm f1.25 M mount lens that should suit you fine without breaking bank:

Humm, I thought you were trying to talk yourself into Nikon, now it's back to Sony? 😉

Same here. We are all excited for seeing a small package with all these features at that price. I like seeing these young "creators" publishing all these nice video handheld. But seriously, for travel or vacation do I need a RAW camera and a countless TB of storage with me? Despite the character, I mostly appreciated the honest Philip Bloom review of this camera.

I think they're acting either conservatively with a wait-and-see approach. IMO, they're waiting to see how the S1 series sells. Based on that and the market/competition, they'll act or not. I've been having a hard time getting excited about these newer bodies. Really, it's more about 4k120fps (if anything). I just cannot justify that kind of expense as a hobbyist. RAW isn't for me. I'm much more excited about lenses now, but even with them, they're becoming too similar across brands. I don't know why, but they're also becoming boring. The Chinese lenses seem to be where the more unique looks are coming from. I have a really hard time thinking that the ZR will be viable on the beach in summer with MF lenses. After the GX800 and S9, even though they can be bright, the EVF is non-negotiable now. Maybe I'm getting old.

Probably the more likely scenario, but at the same time, even the biggest of companies seem to make the most monumental mistakes. I guess that the same philosophy I have always had applies and that is just because you are in business, does not mean you are good at business and that can be applied to any size of company from one man band to massive global one and everything in between. It just takes one single person who has the power to do so to make a wrong decision and... Personally I think it is conservatism at work as in "we'll go so far, but not all the way" and that "all the way" is just one more step after nine already taken and it makes no senses to me as someone who is all or nothing. But the camera companies are all as bad as each other and each have their individual flaws. I just would have thought we were at the point (past the point) where at least one of them would simply cherry pick the pros of each, eliminate the Vons of each and bring something to market that is as flawless as it can be. These 'flaws' are more niggles than anything now for me. All the major brands offer all the tech I need or will ever need and I could easily and happily make any of them work; Nikon, Canon, Sony, LUMIX, so it comes down to personal choice and budget and there best choice for the latter is almost always the system you are in which for me is LUMIX/L Mount. The biggest example of conservatism/cost cutting within LUMIX is probably the reuse of the S5 body. OK, there S5II got an upgrade and the S1II and S1RII further upgrades, but how much more expensive would it have been to go another direction? Only they and other big manufacturers know but probably more than the bean counters were prepared to allow. The bottom line is there isn't really anything else I want (certainly nothing I need) but if I could choose just one single thing for my S1RII's it would be the same kind of mech as it already uses, but the screen size, res and brightness of the ZR screen. But that would then require either a larger body or a different type of body so I'm dreaming...

Wait so Resolve can't export trimmed R3D NE clips?!! You have to transcode to h265 before editing?? If so that's a major issue. I don't understand the workaround of "edit your project straight from the CFExpress card"? As for h265 I think it mainly has to do with the super low variable bitrate which is probably to keep thermals under control, however according to Bloom's review the ProRes HQ displays similar softness which indicates the built-in NR is set way too high. Nikon needs to give ZR some NR settings to get detail back in compressed codecs.

Almost all of entrepreneurs in silicon valley are fascist, some are dumb enough to reveal it at first stage, and some are smart enough to keep it in the closet until the time is right. When your mindset is wrapped by this self generated notion of "people are too imbecile to understand what we actually do everyday", the next step is to assume they're not qualified to govern themselves! Forget Trump, the bigger one is JD Vance. They're all members of tech bro club who think they know how to rule the world. By the way, BBC is known as a outright lier in my home country now. When I was a kid it was the only alternative source to absolute garbage propaganda of the state Radio/TV. We couldn't care about the integrity as much as we had thirst for "different voice". But after the internet revolution, everything changed. Not only it was easier to see how manipulative is their practice of so called journalism, but also was possible to research about their claims, their interviewed "experts", and even the statistics. But the most stab in the back move was giving the mic to hardliner individuals, or their advocates, with this silly justification of "giving both side the chance to express themselves to let people decide themselves". I don't need to hear Bin Laden's side you assholes. Or "former" ISIS members. Or "current" Hamas member, or an orthodox settler that even IDF is struggling with. I know what's their narrative. Just tell me what they've done. As a UK taxpayer you may not very well informed about the damage BBC caused outside the west. They sometimes pushes the narrative of a Washington DC based think tank that is literally a branch of Qatar/Iran/Syria/Russia/Saudi foreign ministry, despite all these criminals call BBC the "Zionist mouth". Its a long sad story with tons of nuances that a camera oriented forum is not a right place to expand.

I had an Alice cam on order. they are scammers, I have zero proof of Alice cams actually delivered to buyers. My second wave cam was never ready to be delivered, even when wave 4 funding was being done. At one point they asked for a full payment to get on the delivery list. Never was I contacted to pay the remainder for an existing, ready to ship unit. now prominent Youtubers are posting about the new cam with Zero reference to the previous gen, as if it never existed. So there was no scam either…

In an alleged board meeting, it was suggested but in the end, ZR narrowly got the vote.

Leica M Typ 240... 2012, this was before Panasonic got more involved with making Leica's stuff. I'll give this a 10/10. The whole motherboard slides out really easily. I baked it in the oven to bring it back to life from completely dead. The solder needed a reflow apparently. 200 degrees C at 7 minutes did the trick. Custom chips all over the place. Utterly beautiful mechanically and in terms of the quality of connectors, cables, lots of metal parts and brilliantly designed internals. Next up another older camera, Nikon D700. Very impressive motherboard with separate analogue to digital converters. Probably why the colour science still has the edge on the newer sensor designs with their inline on-chip A/D. Nikon own branded chips. By contrast in the newer Leica Q... It's actually a Samsung. And the lens relies on a LOT of digital correction, so it's certainly not in same league as a Leica M when it comes to the quality of parts or optics. End result in terms of the images is very nice though. We'll call it the Samsung Q. Onto Fuji now and I have fixed an X-Pro3 and the old X-Pro1. The original had a lot of Fujifilm's own CPUs inside. It's very well made but has a lot of traditionally soldered wires on the mainboard, old-school style. This continues with some of the newer models too. X-Pro3 was an easy fix, a ribbon cable (FPC) had come loose where the sensor plugs into the mainboard. Some tape over the socket had shrunk in the heat and pulled it ajar. Pictured above is the X-Pro1 circuitboard, it's more proprietary whereas X-Pro3 looks a bit more generic on the inside. Here is an oven bake of a Panasonic LX15 mainboard... The components can withstand very high-heat and usually cold solder joints are responsible for a wide range of issues. Unfortunately in this case I made a mistake with the stop watch and the card slot fell off 🙂 Here is a sensor with hot mirror... the IR cut filter glows pink in this shot. If you remove it you get an IR capable camera and can also shoot normally if you add the IR cut filter to the front of the lens instead. I think this sensor is from my Lumix LX100 II or could be Sony RX100, I forget 🙂 Now onto Sony and their smaller cameras are too tightly packed. FPC cables develop cracking over time as some of the metal is folded and bent too tightly to fit the smaller bodies. This is an RX100 and it's very common to see these fail on the cable that connects the lens. A relatively easy fix actually and replacement FPCs are $5 on Aliexpress. But I don't rate Sony's quality as highly as Fuji or Panasonic so far. Onto Canon and I have had a very bad experience so far with their modern cameras. The DSLRs were much better made (i.e. 5D Mark III which was easy to tear down and remove the OLPF back in the day!) They use extremely fragile FPC connection sockets and the ribbon cables themselves are brittle and cheap. Sometimes a few bends and they tear. Doesn't make for a stress free repair that's for sure. In contrast to Panasonic, with the lovely GX80 it's in a different league and take a bit of extra abuse by an amateur repairer. I've done a lot more than what I have time to post today but probably will do a deeper look at stuff for YouTube or the blog. I rate as follows the brands then... 1. Leica (the extra cost is noticeable on the inside) 2. Panasonic (they know how to sensibly build a camera and logically lay out stuff, and they don't scrimp on component quality) 3. Fujifilm (high repairability score and robust, sensible designs) 4. Nikon (high repairability but many of the newer cameras not up to high-standards they set during DSLR era) 5. Sony (they try to pack in too much) 6. Canon (really quite terrible, cheap cost cut components, and badly laid out) Stay tuned for more. I do this just for fun, and really enjoy it. Plus now I have a oven baked Leica 240 to play with 🙂

I suspect they got cold feet after the BS1H box camera and whatever the other box one was. See, no one even really remembers their names, or in some cases, that they existed. LUMIX just seem to have been one of those companies that have focused more on the internal than the external and expect enough respect to come from what it can do, not how it does it or how it goes about it. Meanwhile, Leica and Sigma within the alliance, have possibly had more focus on the external, the build, the form etc. Between them, they could build the ultimate camera. Individually they probably could, but no one ever seems to quite manage it... The bottom line is we are probably not representative of the bulk of their sales, but I think it's a case of they are not pushing the boat out far enough. I'm going to have a t-shirt made that reads; PUSH THE FUCKING BOAT OUT. OR DIE!

Haven't you got an Air Frier yet? Or is there something about France that forbids progress in the kitchen 🙂

Very nice. Proof that Micro Four Thirds has it's own look, and is cinema on a stick in the right hands.

Canon are absolutely the worst in my experience for the flimsy ports, thin circuitboards, cheap connectors and brittle ribbon cables (FPCs). Not seen how the R5C is built but usually the port is secured not even with a screw but sandwiched between two bits of plastic and the case, then the flex of the joint on the mainboard where it's soldered cracks the solder over time, you'd have to take the mainboard out and put it in the oven, risky business. To do a proper HDMI mod you would have to completely disconnect the port from the mainboard and reconnect it with a flexible ribbon cable. Then the cable would take the brunt of any flex over time, rather than the solder. The camera companies are too dumb to do that, and they don't leave enough space between the mainboard and edge of the case to fit a small FPC. With the IR cut filter over the sensor, I've never needed to replace it with clear glass of equal thickness, no focus issues so far.

Quite possible, but if Panasonic wants to continue with Lumix and it makes money and takes money from Sony, I don't see really any changes. I understand this one. Have you had any problems with the S1rii locking up or overheating? I heard someone say that the other day. Maybe they fixed it. I'm not a pro and I'm still fully enjoying the S5ii. These days, I'm more interested in lenses, especially vintage and MF ones. I should be getting the Laowa 28mm f/1.2 in a few days. There's something about the wide and shallow look that attracts me. That lens seems to be the widest, brightest. I was really hesitating between it and the Konica 28mm f/1.8 UC, which is still one of the most unique 28mm on the market. Maybe, I'll pick up both.

For me the future of LUMIX lies in; A. will we see an S1Hii and B. if so, what will it be? If there is one in the pipeline and it’s a banger, it won’t ‘save’ the brand anymore than it would for any other manufacturer as it’s a much bigger picture than that, but as a (pro) consumer of this brand, it will at least have demonstrated their short term commitment. Also we have to remember that the sky was falling in on Nikon just a few short years ago and they were utterly doomed…and at the end of 2025, they are the industry darling. Financially how any of them and doing and what their short, medium and long term goals and outlook is, probably even they don’t really know and Panny are probably on the shakiest ground of all, but had a fairly big surge, at least amongst the community bros this year so… Being totally honest, clean sheet tomorrow morning, I’d pick Nikon without hesitation, for my needs, but I think LUMIX/L Mount would still be in second place and really loving my S1RII’s which are arguably the best tools for my specific hybrid needs available today. ZR vs S1RII for stills? Zero contest, easy LUMIX win. For hybrid? LUMIX wins again. Run & gun video? Could make a case either way but unless shooting R2D2-3CPO raw, I think LUMIX has more advantages. As an outright cine camera, maybe the Nikon. As a brand for the short & medium term, probably Nikon is the safer bet, but depending on how invested you already are. Will this pro services thing have any bearing? Well as a pro with Panny for nearly 5 years now, wasn’t even aware of its existence so… 🤷‍♂️

Yeah, they are the Alice people rebranded. A project that leaves their original customers behind and launches a "new" one. Lots of cases in Kickstarter, or in case of software it could be called "Luminar move"... Very different from, like, the Pixii project.

The polite version is “no thank you”.

Didn't know A7siii has this saturation issue

1) This didn't go well for Sony when they released the QX100 and QX10 years ago. It also didn't work well for Olympus with the Air A01. Of course, none of them stuck a stupid bullshit "AI" label on the end of the camera name so who knows, maybe that's what was missing. 2) Fuck GenAI. Of all the things I want integrated in my camera, that's at about the rock bottom of the list. 3) Note that at least 3 of the 6 testimonials that they include (screenshot below) don't actually say anything positive about the camera. "That's very different" is not an endorsement. In fact, where I live, saying "that's different" is usually a form of backhanded insult. 4) It looks like it only supports wifi connection to the phone without a wired option. In a best-case scenario, screen lag will be tolerable. Go to any reasonably-crowded urban area, though, and enjoy the slide show and/or "connection lost" messages. 5) Even though they say you can choose from over 100 M43 lenses, I'd be worried about magsafe supporting any moderately heavy lens. Even if it does, the camera will be really unbalanced. 6) When Caira goes out of business, there will be nobody left to update the app and the camera isn't usable without it. Cross your fingers that Apple doesn't change some necessary API during an OS update. 7) Super early bird pricing is $695. You can go buy a used Panasonic G85 in like new condition for about $430. You can get an OM System OM-5 in like new condition for about $760 or in excellent condition for about $690. The G85 is cheaper and pretty good - at least on a spec sheet, they seem similar - a little bulkier, maybe. The OM-5 should be at least as good of a camera, also is quite small (not as small, of course, but very small by modern camera standards), and will keep working whether or not OM Systems stays in business or decides they want to stop making cameras. 8 ) Phone cameras are already very good these days. Mine is more than good enough for any of the sort of images/videos that they seem to be promoting on their site. If not, I'd probably just get a newer/better phone and not some janky add-on. 🙂 9) Small company + Kickstarter means you'll probably be waiting a good long time and/or never actually receive the order. Even though they say they have 500 mainboards already in stock, actually building and shipping hundreds of units is a really hard challenge that a lot of kickstarter projects don't take into account - and sometimes not even due to fault of the creators. My 4x10 film camera that I ordered from an established brand (Ondu) who already made/shipped lots of pinhole cameras for years beforehand took WAY longer than expected, at least partly because suppliers kept sending out-of-spec parts to them. The owner is a really great guy and we had some nice conversations when I asked my camera hadn't come despite that he said they were caught up on orders (turned out that their tool to collect shipping information lost a bunch of responses so he had to go manually collect them from a lot of people). So anyway - for me, Caira is a hard no. I'm basically the opposite of their target market, though.

Pixel binned raw 4k120 of ZR has the same amount of details of FX3, if not more, which is a native 4k sensor