Andrew Reid

Camera companies got sent a public tender from the Associated Press, who previously had chosen Canon gear. The tender however is a covert list of Sony specs! I have retyped it. Original document is not shared in order to protect the source, but this NEEDS be public knowledge. My comments are in brackets. STILL CAMERAS Camera Body 1: Professional level camera that will be the workhorse of AP photojournalists worldwide. Silent operation with electronic shutter and a mechanical shutter for flash sync. Hi-res electronic viewfinder with fast refresh rate. 20 frames per second in silent mode. Full frame auto-focus sensor. Weather sealed. Built-in Gigabit Ethernet. Built-in WIFI. Full remote control via Ethemet. No shutter blackout. No rolling shutter that distorts/manipulated images. Full range of native lenses for system (we'd like to avoid having to use adapters on non-native lenses). Facial recognition capabilities with eye tracking. Integrated phone app. Video capable 4K. (That is a Sony A9 II then) Camera Body 2: Professional level camera for use for specialty assignments like entertainment, fashion and portraiture. Silent operation with electronic shutter plus mechanical shutter for flash sync. 50 megapixel or larger. Minimum 10 frames per second. Higher resolution view finder (oled viewfinder). Real time face and eye tracking. 4K video capable. (How oddly specific... That'll be the A7R IV then!) (It gets worse...) Camera Body 3: Reporter level camera that can be easily carried in a pocket or backpack. Super compact real time eye tracking. 24-200 equivalent lens. 15 frames per second/no blackout. 4K video. Audio jack. (Perfectly describes the RX100 VI right down to the exact focal length) ********* Can you imagine if you were somebody at Nikon or Fuji for example and you received this quite specific description of 3 Sony Cameras? So what went on? Was a deal stitched up behind the scenes first? If so, why bother sending a tender out to other companies at all? If you have any more info about this tender process please let me know so I can continue investigating.

He didn't go into detail or put any more out on Twitter as it would jeopardise the sale of the site. That's what he told me. Hopefully when he is 100% out of the industry he will be able to blow the whistle. If he doesn't, I'll be disappointed.

No wonder Canon leads sales and colour science when Fuji is messing around with silly X-Trans technology then.

Ah so not X-Trans in fact. I have noticed similar things with other cameras in foliage. Remember the Samsung NX1 vs Canon 1D C video on EOSHD? Are we sure it isn't a GPU decoder / NLE problem and it is definitely the camera?

Good point about X-Trans. It's probably one of those pragmatic Fuji compromises like 4:2:0 in video mode. At least they are not chopping IBIS out of a $4500 EOS R5C! Could be worse. Fuji's JPEGs and colour does have a nice smooth look most of the time... and now we know why? 🙂 It isn't necessarily horrible, but it clearly has downsides for certain kinds of shot when viewed at 1:1. This is a great find though (and it's one of the best advertisements for Magic Lantern RAW I've ever seen).

Are you all using Resolve? Better check it isn't an issue with the software.

My theory is Fuji is doing this on purpose as a form of hidden noise reduction. Or maybe it's industrial sabotage from Sony when they supply the sensor. 💩

Great work. I wonder if the same issue is present on the GFX 100 in ProRes RAW to an external recorder?

It doesn't take up a huge amount of room either, the diameter of the front of the camera is only a bit bigger than your average EF lens. I wish the camera companies would recognise the importance of this mechanism and put it in. Canon C70 manages it. FS5 does it. It's the Japanese obsession with small widgets that stops it from going into mirrorless cameras. Just make them 10% bigger and be done with it.

Pocket 4K in Cinema DNG was up there, before they nurfed it. I still have my original firmware! Would have thought the finest grain award goes to URSA 12K. I also liked 5D Mark II ML RAW in 2K. Very digital Bolex like at ISO 1600 especially with a black and white grade. 5D Mark III was a bit too smooth by comparison to the older one.

Indeed, when given the choice between buying a Sigma lens in E or L mount, one of the big reasons for buying a modern lens rather than using classic stuff is AF. So if they can't sort out AF, the entire mount dies. No rush then!

I agree on the importance of AF. Especially in a mirrorless camera. In terms of the market, Blackmagic seems to have got a free pass though. Shit AF all round from them, and nobody complains and the cameras sell like hot cakes. So what's going on? Sony, Canon and Nikon all AF obsessed and producing very capable systems in both video and stills mode. Fuji is patchy. I thought maybe it's Sony patents holding Panasonic to ransom, or past mistakes. But then a literal Olympus CORPSE comes out of a graveyard and gives us Quad Pixel phase-detect AF on sensor. It's absolutely bizarre the whole thing isn't it? As for GH6, I have one but am under NDA so can't say anything about it until it launches for real.

Does it come with a free ticket to a Wallabies game as well?

Why's it got an Olympus badge??

Nope. An investment firm bought the Olympus camera division. Olympus themselves, outside of just cameras still exists. Japanese government is nothing like China. It isn't communist for a start!

Why does it still have an Olympus logo?

I have a bit of a conspiracy theory about the new OM digital company. I think Sony will help it along, and maybe Sony has some interest in taking a stake in a competitor who was formerly more close to Panasonic. Rumours of a Sony Quad Pixel sensor in the new OM digital camera, could make it surprisingly advanced tech. As for video... Olympus had a few fans but the masses always saw them more as a photography brand like Fuji, and unlike Fuji, Olympus did not do a big video push later on or any dedicated hybrid models like the Fuji X-H1. Plus if you had a bunch of Micro Four Thirds lenses and wanted video... You wouldn't choose an E-M1 II over a GH5. Personally I liked both. Olympus did do some things in a different way, and it's up to opinion whether that was better than Panasonic. Plus, E-M1 II had phase-detect AF. E-M1 X is a nice body, they went out on a high. Of course it lacks all the myriad video features of Panasonic and 10bit. But it has a seriously nice image and great ergonomics, plus superb IBIS.

Plot twist. This patent is actually for the Komodo. Canon makes it for RED. Just a thought. Probably an incorrect one but it is oddly similar isn't it?

"sensors up to 56x42 (a 4:3)" So Canon going into medium format market then? Which of their current lenses will cover that?! There must be more to it. I would be very surprised if they bring out a Canon camera with no Canon lenses to go with it.

Indeed real life is much missed! Social media has brought along a degenerate culture to the industry. It's a bit like if Associated Press put out a public tender to the camera companies but it only mentions specific Sony specs because a deal was stitched up behind closed doors earlier. Meritocracy is under serious threat if this continues.

Facebook's vision with the tech that started with Oculus is to virtualise our everyday lives so we do nothing but sit at home with a bucket on our head watching ads.

The social media abuse is one thing but I'd like to bring this topic back to what Canon Rumors guy says in his actual tweets above. I am interested to hear all your opinions on this more so than anything else. 50K ad guys CR guy falling out with YouTubers Gannon at DPReview (who writes all the clickbait on the news feed) Industry is turning into a cess pit and it isn't much fun to be involved in it. Unless the audience and consumers turn away from this and stop watching, stop clicking, stop endorsing, the problem of cronyism is going to get worse. Why aren't we on Roger Deakin's forum instead or taking lessons from other top DPs?

I think it's obvious what it's about, and I fully agree with him. But on that I have no idea what is going on. Strange times indeed!

It is not shutting down. Canon Rumors is staying open, just under new owners. It's a sale.

Oh yes. I'd forgotten about that. Crazy fanboy lunatics. I had daily anonymous threats via my contact form with fake email addresses. Found the guy by looking up his IP address and comparing it to previous website use where he'd used his name and email. I think the reason I forgot about the Canon fanboys was because most of all I remember the Philip Bloom defenders coming after me in their hundreds.