Andrew Reid

How about the original Sony a1?

The Z8 is a bit of a bargain, but out of the two I regret selling my a1 more, because it was smaller, lighter, and here's the kicker - better colour science. Which I'd never thought in a million years I'd say about a Sony. You also save a lot of card space by shooting in the upgraded 8K H.265 mode that looks as good as N-RAW for a quarter of the file size. E-mount saves you further money on glass and adapters as well.

If the OG a1 is similar in price to that Z8 with 24-70 bundle, I'd be tempted to go for the Sony and stick a nice small, but cheap, vintage 35mm on it.

I'd then pair that with a little Micro Four Thirds camera, maybe a good old GX80.

That screen looks huge. They finally did it. A world beyond 3.2 inches exists.

In the land of low camera prices, with my lack of impulse control I wouldn't stand a chance.

Just out of curiosity what are the prices on used a Sony a9 III?

I am actually more tempted by that by anything Nikon related, when it comes down under 3k.

It's absolutely pointless even talking to these people (if they are indeed real people), we are so far apart and they are so far down the rabbit hole thanks to social media. The great tragedy is that the internet in it's original concept was supposed to level up people's knowledge of the factual world and to broaden their minds, connect them with other cultures and other people.

The way the billionaires have just completely subverted the technology is horrific and they are all mega rich as a result. Zuckerberg should be in jail.

On social media, even the order of comments under a post swaps around depending on who the algorithm believes you will agree with most, so the counterbalance of views just never gets seen.

And the end goal of all of this was never to break society - that's just collateral to the main mission, which is shareholder value.

And if Zuck and Elon weren't bad enough and all the dark money sloshing about from Russia, I am equally as disgusted at the so-called "moral" liberal elite of tech leaders who stay silent on the destruction of our society and community cohesion in the name of profit.

Like Tim Cook for instance.

Scary image.

On 11/13/2025 at 2:36 AM, Leon Postma said:

Was at the Acquaria KLCC in Malaysia yesterday - sponsored by Petronas- the amount of signs that stressed nature’s ability to change sexes, sexless species, male pregnancies was enough to send any sane person into gender dysphoria.  Feeding the antihuman propaganda to our kids. Fertility rates are dropping fast without all the gender bending as it is  Nature is steadily being  weaponized further and even commodified/tokenized if it’s up to Blackrock CEO and current WEF head Larry Fink

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?

On 11/13/2025 at 2:36 AM, Leon Postma said:

As long as you don’t fall for the ESG narrative and all the other anti human stuff being thrown at us - the BBC serves the interests of the Ciry of London, the financial imperialist bankers who play both sides of the political aisle and are tied to the hip to big food, pharma and oil.

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.

On 11/13/2025 at 2:36 AM, Leon Postma said:

Like the former WEF head Klaus Schwab triumphantly said - we penetrated the governments. Just look at who are the founders of the Club of Rome - the strategy spans decades.  Percolating lower and put into action through countless tax payer funded NGO’s. Democrats perfected it with USAID funneling ungodly amounts of. money abroad 

Ah yes the NGOs and USAID are at the root of all evil aren't they wanting to end world hunger.

On 11/13/2025 at 2:36 AM, Leon Postma said:

The real fight is between the antihuman rule based order of the globalists versus the multipolar alternative where sovereign countries economically bypass the institutional death grip of IMF through BRICS , ASEAN etc. Confiscation of Russian funds basically made this dormant rift irreversible - the message was loud and clear to entities outside the West - the warmongering EU/ECB cant be trusted

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.

On 11/13/2025 at 2:36 AM, Leon Postma said:

And as flawed as Trump might be - he probably has been fighting on the good side since his first stint as President.  Gaza and Ukraine are the visible proxies, Trumps main fight though is at home moving away from the imperialist clutches of the Wall Street/London City bankers. Much like the historic independence wresting free from Imperialist Britain which got subverted with the eeection of the FED and the fostering of the “special

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.

 

10 hours ago, ND64 said:

By the way, BBC is known as a outright lier in my home country now.

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.

10 hours ago, ND64 said:

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 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.

13 hours ago, maxJ4380 said:

probably but i'd speculate bm carved out a fair sized chunk of the market for themselves..

If Blackmagic hadn't have existed, there would have been a less colourful period in cameras between 2013-2018. But the rest have caught up now though, and there's not really much need as an indie filmmaker or enthusiast to get a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera over something like a Panasonic S1H. They are a high-end broadcast / pro cinema camera company now. The 12K sensor is very impressive. But they are not doing as much value for money as they used to do... Panasonic still is though.

 

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/

13 hours ago, ac6000cw said:

They had an FX2-like body design (including a flip-up, multi-angle EVF) 9 years ago in the form of the GX8 - https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-dmc-gx8-review/3

LOL. I know. We are talking about the lack of a modern full frame L-mount version of the GX8/GX9.

1 hour ago, Marcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

I have to torn apart my Lumix FZ1000, which have dust in the sensor, and I guess some haze from a sea city (the haze is more pronounced in the EVF optics - probably this will stay, I think that the EVF could not be torn apart - but I guess some of it is on the sensor too). Bought it for 1/3 of the usual price, besides the dust (unseen in almost 95% of the pics) and maybe a bit of sensor haze, and a non functional HDMI port (that I dont use), is it perfect.

iFixit have a very detailed guide, and I bought a digital gauge to take measurements of the sensor assembly height to try to keep the focal plane in check.

Nice.

With a bit of practice it's less scary than it sounds, and you just need the right tools and steady hand.

A JIS standard screwdriver is a must... they use weird Japanese screw-head geometry, which the normal Philips head screwdrivers have a habit of stripping.

The only things I don't go near are modern lenses... Hellish.

Especially the zooms if you go deeper than taking the rear mount off.

3 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Just another normal evening in the Reid kitchen.

Meanwhile, other folks around the world are sliding a lasagne out of theirs.

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

On 11/8/2025 at 4:55 AM, kye said:

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.

I have many questions about your Sirui setup 🙂

How easy is it to focus and what's the min FD when combined with the Voigtlander 42?

Are these shots wide open at F0.95 on the Voigtlander?

Could you go wider, with the Sirui? Voigtlander 17.5mm?

It really is a lovely result you've posted and would be happy to see more.

The GH7 is such a good choice when you have optics as good as the Voigtlander Noktons are... and anamorphic is the cherry on top. Makes me want to get a GH7 in fact.

Panasonic did much more overall than BM.

Nothing to stop them doing an FX2 as well.

Very nice.

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

4 hours ago, Chrille said:

I guess they hoped for something like the success of the venice / Burano. And now they are out of the market because of the Venice/ Burano. 

It does look like they have thrown in the towel.

The precedent for camera companies when they dump their high-end and pro stuff is not good.

They loose the halo effect of these products and the brand takes a battering.

Then they become totally reliant on consumer trends and the dreaded smartphones start pinching their customers, which doesn't happen at the Venice / Burano end of the market 🙂

Panasonic's core camera experience is still really good.

But they need to show more imagination. More varied form factors, higher build quality, better ergonomics and dial feel, use the word Cinema in their hybrid and filmmaking orientated cameras i.e. Cinema Lumix GH8... Get their marketing together, it's a shit show, and really focus on getting a camera together that appeals to proper photographers, not the S9, but something like an OM-1 or GX9 with their best full frame sensor from S1R II.

I sadly don't think they've got the commitment or the resources any more, I think Panasonic have done a restructuring and it has neutered the A/V and camera divisions.

2 hours ago, Django said:

I think Canon are quietly killing it right now with specs, finally feels mature and cripple free. But the build quality of the R line still feels very consumer grade:  lots of plastic, light mounts, and that “electronic toy” feel that’s hard to unsee once you’ve handled something like the Sigma BF with its heavy yet compact unibody and metal primes.

That said, this new RF 45 mm f1.2 feels like a sign of change. Still cheap construction but it’s the first affordable RF lens that borrows optical ideas from Canon’s EF L glass, chasing character over sterile sharpness. I'll give them props for that alone while the competition chases optical perfection & digital correction.

I agree they have improved the specs a lot and the value for money in terms of the specs you get in a consumer body, 4K/120p on the R6 is something that really closes the gap to the R5 II and something I didn't think possible with a standard non-stacked, (not even BSI) sensor.

By far the biggest problem for me is still that lens mount, and yeah the bodies are soulless to use. It's as if they saw the older Sony a7 cameras and thought AHAH let's make a camera as boring to use as that, it should have the soul of an office laserjet, the same finish and materials. The lenses are even worse.

Ironically Sony are now far ahead on the fit, feel, finish and ergonomics of their bodies, things began to improve since the a7r III, a9 and a7 III. They are now dramatically improved with the a9 III and a1 II, although I still think the original a1 and the a7r V with their more angular grips look sleeker and more stylish. a1 II is a bit of a tubby chonk, needs to diet.

Even the Canon R3 feels like it's a photocopier, there's just something about the materials they've used to finish the body and buttons that feels cheap and clinical.

If you compare to Canon at their peak, it's a real step backwards.

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.

Surely Panasonic must be looking at giving us something in that style before much longer.

Rectangle, long...

Maybe a coffin to put their fucking brand in.

But if they do ever do another camera, that isn't an S5 with different sensor... Maybe it'll be the S1H II that gets the FX3 treatment, or it might even be an S9 II (seems a bit soon for the latter and for the former a bit fucking late though).

Panasonic are acting even more strange at the moment because they have no pro video camcorders any more. Why not? What happened to the Varicam line? EVA?

The GH7 could also have evolved with the times into a FX3 / ZR style body. Instead it STILL handles like a STILLS camera.

Come on Panasonic.

Wake up.

Open gate on a Canon stills cam? Never thought I'd see the day.

A lot to like here.

But also a lot I don't need. I am still majorly put off by RF mount.

I can put a 5 dollar lens on my GFX 100 and it looks like a Noctilux.

I can put a 3000 dollar lens on the Canon R6 III and it'll look sterile and boring, it'll weigh 6 tons and not look better than the 5 dollar lens on the GFX 100 so call me penny pinching but I am not very hyped about switching.

The Canon RF lens line up is a dud and even if they do now have a $450 lens to counter all the cheap F1.2 stuff from China on Amazon, it ain't enough and for me $450 is still quite a lot of money for a cheaply built boring modern lens.

A nice body to pick up second hand in 6 months for $2k for manual focus Canon FD glass though.

Nikon Zr hurts as it just seemed such an obvious move for Panasonic, they were well known for both the rangefinder-style form factor and the video features. There should have been a Panasonic Zr before a Nikon... The S9 was not it.

On the one hand photographers are crying out for rangefinder style small bodies, which Panasonic did so well in the Micro Four Thirds days. The GX80 and GX9 are so much in demand now that the used prices are constantly going up...they are 6-10 years old!

So what do they do... They go and launch one with no EVF and no mechanical shutter which is the surest way to piss off photographers imaginable.

And on the other hand video folk are really in love with the Sony FX3 for some reason and the smaller form factor, FX2 is very nice for example with the nod to the latter mentioned stills features missing from S9.

So Panasonic instead of doing an FX3 clone like Nikon and Canon... Go off on a complete tangent and do nothing. Not even an S1H Mark II.

Instead we have the overpriced S5 bodies otherwise known as S1 II and S1R II.

Great image quality and features but completely wrong marketing and design concepts.

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 would HATE to lose Panasonic from cameras.

I have all my fingers crossed this is not the case.

It's a move away from "Pro" in the marketing of cameras.

Part of this is because they know Lumix has no chance vs Canon, Sony and Nikon with press agencies and in the professional sports market.

The autofocus situation never allowed them a toe in the door let alone a foot.

But I also think it hints at something deeper.

When Samsung withdrew from the camera market they also heavily cut back on pro marketing and support first.

Not that Samsung's own PR people were aware of it (even days after the NX1's cancellation they thought they were still in the camera market!)

They were fired shortly after.

I think it's the beginning of the end for Lumix.