Andrew Reid

That's a prime example, if you pardon the pun I know ultra sharp corners are a concern of the engineers, and all that... But the 40mm F2.8 EF Pancake costs 150 bucks and doesn't vignette. If you need sharp corners for landscapes, which you'd shoot stopped down 99% of the time anyway at infinity... then just stop down to F5.6 or F8. Sorted. No reason why the lens can't be an F2 or F2.8 on the mini GFX.

Certainly aimed at the Leica Q3 crowd and perhaps some X100 VI owners with deep pockets. I don't like that F4 lens though. All just so it has sharp corners wide open. The Reid Experiments with fast full frame lenses on the GFX 100 proves that you can have a small-as-Leica-M something F2 lens on there and still reach the edges of the sensor quite well. I forgot the X100 VI in my list as well... The new lens and sensor is much improved since the earlier days of X100T etc.

Thoughts on the best fun-factor cameras, I am thinking Fuji X-Pro 3, Sigma Fp, all the things that doesn't try to look like an EOS R5, but feels and looks a bit different. Niche artistic tools. I think I would rank my favourites as follows but pretty sure I have forgotten some... 1. Sony RX1R II... The smallest ever full frame camera and that ingenious pop-up EVF 2. Fuji X-Pro3... Fuji's prettiest camera, with the most film-camera-like shooting experience 3. Sigma BF... It's the Fp concept turned up to 11 4. Hasselblad HV... The crazy Sony collaboration which came up with this 10k a99. It's lovely though. Got mine on eBay. 5. GFX 100 with full frame lenses... Pure art every time. I would like for there next to be a digital version of a Contax T2 in same style of body, same size, retractable fast prime lens, also would like a digital Nikon S series rangefinder camera and an X-Pro4 that finally launches Fuji's full frame range (I can but dream).

That could just be a bug in Adobe Camera Raw which fails to completely turn off NR. But in the Slashcam video, can you link to it? I am curious about that one.

I think if people are spending $3500+ they also want a future proof camera. The S1R II sensor is a Sony IMX366, right? That will be mid-range at best in a year when it is featured in the a7 V around the $2k or 2.5k mark. Anyway let's see what Panasonic bring in April, and if they get the S1H Mark II right. For me the sensor or image quality has never been the main problem with Lumix cameras anyway... all fine and some of the best video quality in V-LOG. Since the s5 the main issue has been the long wait for new stuff, AF behind the curve, poor lens adapter performance, and an unimaginative product line-up that neither feels or looks either high-end or creative. (Unlike, say an X-Pro3 / Sigma Fp / Z8)

At least it won't be 7 years though.

That's always one of the problems with the R for resolution cameras. Always a better video one coming a bit later.

Interesting but it needs a bit of explaining, aka how were they exposed, how far are the shadows being pushed, and what bitrates in 8K h.265, and so on.

Said no camera company ever.

Nice to have a video from someone actually shooting with the camera and doing a good job at that. Very good review. I would choose the Sony a1 over both of these, it has the speed over the a7r V and close-enough in resolution at 50MP, and it has the better sensor over the S1R II and of course the mount very much depends what you're most invested in but I definitely have more stuff for Sony than I do L-mount.

I think overall a fascinating post and goes to the heart of why limitations breed creativity, you can't fix it in post.

I just think 30ms+ rolling shutter in 2025 on a $3.5 hybrid cam is a bit of a piss take, and it does render the open gate mode compromised and also the 8K. The line-skipped / pixel binned modes are fine though. Decent amount of detail, but again nothing that a much cheaper camera can't do.

I've noticed a bit of a trend with Gerald... Provoke the nerds for clicks and then back pedal furiously when the PR team get upset.

What the fuck is the skipping rope test telling us?

I remember when Apple made the Mac Pro in Texas because it had such a high price tag and massive margin they could afford the American wages for the factory. Same doesn't work with smartphones, consumer electronics, cameras, and so on. Not anything under $4k anyway. Imagine the number of people you need to build 2 million smartphones a month? Wage bill if they are all on $50k+? I think the only intelligent American is an embarrassed American at the moment. I feel for them. The amount of people who have been hoodwinked by propoganda, Fox news and social media is incredible. And the rest of the world is just angry. The UK, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and so many others are allies of the US. We are being treated very very badly. But that's not really surprising if you read the Christopher Steele report into Trump's Russian holidays, with FSB filmed prostitute Kompromat, golden showers and all the dodgy dealing.

These Trump voters, they are all for manufacturing in the US but I doubt any of them actually wants to work in a Foxconn factory... let alone have one next door and the same air quality the industrial areas of China 'enjoys'. None of them want to pay double for their next iPhone either. Never has the disconnect between reality and opinion been so wide as it is right now. Tough times coming.

I'd rather have the Z6 III sensor than FX3 sensor actually. 6K, open gate, maybe 4K/120p without a crop if they have active cooling on it. 12 megapixel is a bit old hat now.

It will be 4 years trying to bully everyone into manufacturing stuff in the US not realizing that they will have to pay the factory workers US wages instead of Chinese or Thai, and the increase in costs for the manufacturer from what will make 50% tariffs look like peanuts. I hope the US consumer enjoys their inflation. Having already crashed the stock market and let Russia off the hook, soon with the sanctions lifted, there's a lot of other unintended consequences to come from voting for a convicted fraudster that people may not have realised at the time when they voted for a senile Russian asset. Of course there's a ton of Japanese cameras made or assembled in China and certainly shipped from China, Thailand or Vietnam rather than directly from Japan so the US will be seeing massive price hikes on all that as well, and that's the best case scenario for the US - as at some point importers may choose to prioritise other markets over them, and there's plenty of stuff in short supply like Fuji cameras which will be withheld and sent to the many other markets without tariffs. There's also the problem of raw material resources if MAGA want to make manufacturing great again and do large quantities of modern electronics on a farm in Alabama, they will have to import a ton of it from China or plunder Ukraine (maybe snatch a few gold watches and gold teeth from dead bodies whilst they're at it?). The whole bullying of Canada and Greenland thing is all so these nazi crooks can dig them up for raw resources and access Canada's hydroelectricity on the cheap. It isn't going to happen, not if Mark Carney wins. I hope people who voted for the nazi party feel the hit in the bank accounts. YOU DESERVE IT 10x.

Totally agree!

If you only plan to go with an adapted cheap 50mm prime, the S1 is better due to the better EVF and less fiddly control layout. The EVF on the S5 and manual focus is a horrible experience.

Scratch the maybe... it is practically broken for autofocus whereas the a7 III and Z6 are very capable indeed. There's not as much difference as the specs suggest between 8bit H.264 and 10bit H.265 even in LOG. None in the standard colour profiles and barely any difference shooting in flat profile. The S5 video features it's true there's some bells and whistles added. But the Z6 doesn't lack for anything major, just the smaller assists and things - and the IBIS is just as good too in 4K. I don't think he's shooting anamorphic so doesn't need the extra S5 modes there?

You'll be amazed at the quality of 10bit H.265 LOG at low bitrates, even as low as 50Mbit/s Unless you're doing very heavy VFX / grading / lifting shadows 5 stops for HDR puke look - it looks excellent. The Z6 and a7 III have a similar image, similar spec, same sensor, it comes down to price, lenses, mount, and if the a7 III is as high as $1k I would choose the $750 Z6 instead. The s5 has 10bit LOG, as long as you're happy with a much worse EVF and autofocus than Z6. One of the cheapest and most capable 10bit cameras under $700 is the Fuji X-T3. The Z6 has no N-LOG but you can install my own EOSHD Z-LOG profile and use LUTs. If you absolutely need 10bit LOG rather than 8bit Panasonic is pretty much only full frame choice for very cheap under $800.

Curious about the wish to record externally. The internal codecs are so good these days and SD cards so cheap that you don't need to. What continuous run-times are we talking about, will it be many hours? I would try and find a used Panasonic S1H for under $1k or cheap Sigma Fp deal. Nikon Z6 is a decent choice and best value. Sony a7 III? OK it's not 10bit but S-LOG2 grades well in 8bit, small file sizes in 4K and it has decent low light too. The older a7s II is also worth a look. But the cheapest 10bit camera is the Panasonic S1. Also worth a look but check the recording time limits!

Nikon / Vimeo have joined up to hand out $30k funding each to lucky filmmakers. https://vimeo.com/shortfilmgrant?utm_source=MKT&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=en_CA-vimeo-grant-3-12-2025&utm_content=btn&utm_term=ApplyNow&ET_CID=5558147&ET_RID=1080819395 You get the use of a Nikon Z8, Z9 or RED cameras too. Will be interested to see what comes out of this.