Andrew Reid

Well he would say that, now vloggers are probably 40% of his viewers. I agree. There is more to aperture than a shallow DOF. Some shots look better with a deeper DOF anyway. Some of the F0.95 super fast super 16mm lenses are a prime example - by equivalence terms to full frame, they're only F1.8 - but they look nothing like a full frame lens, full stop. And sometimes they look terrible wide open and sometimes glorious. This is why people need to get off the specs bandwagon and shoot more stuff. For most lenses, F1.7 on 2x crop sensor looks very different to F3.5 on full frame. Well there are some Micro Four Thirds sensors that are better in low light than certain full frame sensors. It's important to look beyond the catch-all equivalency formulas that pixel peepers like. You can have a large sensor with small pixels and large gaps between them. Blackmagic Production Camera 4K is one of those. The GH5S with smaller sensor would have it for breakfast at ISO 1600. If both sensors have the same pixel architecture, but one is 10 megapixels 4K native and the other 60MP with pixel binned 4K it gets even more complicated. The earlier pixel binning high res full frame cameras do not look as clean as the GH5S with 2x crop sensor. Later, the image processing and pixel binning methods improved and light gathering efficiency per pixel increased. I keep seeing people say that no matter if the GH5S has a 10 megapixel sensor and A7R IV 60MP, the larger sensor will always 'gather more light' and that is just not true. It's much more complicated. When it comes to F1.7, F1.7 is F1.7. It's always going to be brighter than F2.8 or F3.5, and shallow DOF does not make or break every shot. In 20-30% of cases it might hinder the shot. Sometimes I want to see the background just slightly out of focus and not a complete watercolour. It might have visual details or information in it relevant to the story. The advantage of F1.7 on Micro Four Thirds in low light is when you need a deeper DOF without stopping down and harming low light performance. So you can be assured of ISO 800, say, on the GH5 with this lens and be able to get the shot that is right for the scene and not have to shoot F1.7 on full frame with no background detail, or have to move further away from the subject. It is amazingly sharp, as good as a Leica prime. When the 25-50 comes out that is just two lenses that replace all primes from 20mm to 100mm in full frame terms. If you wanted that kind of sharpness and optical performance from your full frame camera you'd have to have primes. There is no zoom 20-100mm that is that good (yet), let alone as bright as F1.7 in low light. 20-100mm is at least 7 prime lenses. 20mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm. On Sony E-mount for those 7 at F1.7 or faster, and premium-end sharpness you are looking at about 10 grand!

My first impressions on the blog: https://www.eoshd.com/news/panasonic-10-25mm-f1-7-first-impressions-sample-shots-from-gh5/ Any questions let me know!

It's 37 billion in total funding over 2 years for the app and entire track and trace system which has highly paid consultants, a big Tory running it, people phoning you up when you're quarantining, and so on. "Only" 35 million of this was to develop a phone app based on already existing Google and Apple technology to alert you when you may have been in contact with somebody who has tested positive. I think some of that money was wasted on an earlier app as well that never saw the light of day because they switched strategies later to use the Google / Apple methods of tracing, since it's seen as more privacy conscious and less draining of your phone's battery life. When I was quarantining last month when I came back from Germany, I got a call every day for 10 days from the system basically asking if I was in my home and being a good boy. Yes. If you miss every call because you're on the toilet or whatever, there's no obligation to prove you didn't break the quarantine. It's all a complete waste of money. The onus is on the public to behave. I don't think any of the government measures really do much but cause us all a big hassle. If you came back from a covid hotspot with the virus and tested positive during home quarantine, by that point you'd have given it to your kids, relatives, wife, etc. And they'd all be mixing it in the community. And indeed a lot of people who brought the Indian variant into the country did not bother even sticking to the rules and some people are even still carrying on as normal when they're sick and know they have it. Unless you have a very strict quarantine like New Zealand with the hotels for everybody, you may as well have none. It always starts with just 1 case and goes from there. It's either all or nothing as far as the rules go. In the UK it has always been a patchwork of half measures. The most concerning thing for me is how so few journalists are questioning how the money was wasted and why the sums are so high. The government has the press and The BBC very well trained it seems.

Nope it really is 37 billion £ https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/150988/unimaginable-cost-of-test-trace-failed-to-deliver-central-promise-of-averting-another-lockdown/

The Panasonic GH6 is going to be the most advanced Micro Four Thirds camera ever made. The reaction has been pretty positive. But is it enough for it to be a solid update over the GH5? Does it need a big attention grabbing feature that makes it unique? New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/gauging-the-reaction-to-the-panasonic-gh6/

For some people the GH6 does need that stand out feature, which nothing else does. For other people it will be the overall package of features for the price, and the small size and the particular lens mount that makes it worth upgrading to from an older GH series. For me I consider focus and exposure basics. So sort out the AF and have an ND filter. This will make it stand out for me. Plus ProRes 422 for smoother editing. Wide dynamic range. Great big EVF. Let's face it, the GH5 was a much nicer camera to use than the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras, with far more features and much better for hybrid use. So if they can borrow a few features from the BM Pocket 6K Pro like the ND, ProRes and give us all the advantages of a mirrorless camera for $2500 then It'd be a big relief to use the GH6 instead when I need all those. Panasonic's IBIS system, ergonomics and image processing are some of the best around.

5.7K is plenty. I'm glad they didn't go 8K. 4K/120p is much more dramatic looking than 8K. Great for cinema. I agree on all your wish list points. Some good stuff there. They are very heavy too. Great lenses, but may as well go FF now. Micro Four Thirds can be more extremely small and light. AF is top of my list too. Let's hope they offer both DFD and phase-detect AF.

Wait till you see how much they love Atomos? I'm going to be tied up with HDMI cables forever it seems (for ProRes or RAW)

You mean the GH5 II or GH6?

Here's the GH6 announcement and press release: https://www.eoshd.com/news/panasonic-gh6-announced-with-4k-120p-new-sensor-and-processor/

"New GH series cameras" - notice the plural - are coming. I'll be in the YouTube chat bar to watch with you all. My hopes and dreams are: GH6 development announcement with some key details - Internal ProRes 10bit and RAW recording would be great to compete with Blackmagic & Canon. 4K/120fps to compete with Sony. Internal ND filter would be fantastic. We can but keep our fingers and toes crossed! GH5 II revealed in full, I don't think it's going to be a big leap from the original model but USB charging is certainly welcome and maybe Panasonic can surprise us with something else useful? GH5S firmware 2.0 and G9 firmware update 2.4 could bring some interesting features including ProRes RAW via HDMI! New lenses? Maybe another GH series camera aside from the GH6 and GH5 II? According to the teaser we are getting at least 2 cameras. The live presentation starts at 15:00 GMT (London) and 10:00 ET.

Very interesting. Thanks for the insight Thomas!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/21/tabloids-hurt-princess-diana-panorama-bbc-scapegoat “Defund the BBC,” was last night’s pontification from former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie, who once put Diana’s covertly recorded private phone calls on a premium-rate line so readers could ring in and have a listen. And those were the good years. Half the stuff these guys did in pursuit of Diana stories is, mercifully for them, completely unprintable. Alas, we will spend the next few days hearing of the BBC’s shame from some of the most shameless hypocrites in human history. The tabloids may not like Prince Harry’s reincarnation as a super-rich Californian wellness bore, but it does have the moral edge over pulling people’s medical records and hacking the phones of murdered 13-year-old girls.

Photographers and tabloid paparazzi are said to have played a significant role in the death of Princess Diana in the 1990s. Now there are new revelations about the role journalists at the BBC played in her life and events leading to her death. However, there is more to this story than meets the eye. New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/princess-diana-death-by-a-million-clicks/

DM me and I'll send you a new download link!

It's still available. Look at Shooter's Guide menu on front page. https://www.eoshd.com/eoshd-shooters-guide-sony-a7-a7r-lenses/ Have you seen the prices of Canon FD 24mm f1.4L lately? 🙂

For a long time the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras have been a barebones experience to shoot with. Great codec and image quality but a lack of important other features (and not great build quality). Well Blackmagic has stepped up and beaten the mirrorless cameras to build-in ND filters. Yes in 2021 it's finally happened! Well done camera industry. They have added a hinge to the screen as well. For an extra $500 you can get an EVF which slots on top. The battery also gets an upgrade from a smaller Canon LP-E6 to Sony NP-F570. However one thing I find puzzling about the Pocket 6K Pro is the lens mount. New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/thoughts-on-the-blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-6k-pro-tilt-screen-evf-built-in-nd-filters-but-why-ef-mount/

Fun to read about the history. Even when they went all in with the most advanced 8mm camera it was always a side show compared to photography though. If you look how diverse Fuji are now, making covid drugs and stuff... Compared to Nikon which basically only has two product lines - cameras and lithography - It spells trouble for them as they are just not exploiting the demand in other areas.

It's sold.

Yeah but I show that in the article. I raised the exposure 5 stops! Still no difference.

Yeah RAW and ProRes are the natural codecs for 10bit and above. I can't work out if Sony's 8bit is just very good if 10bit H.264 and H.265 is a waste of disk space.

In 99% of cases there seems to be little benefit to using 10bit other than more difficult to edit, larger file sizes. 10bit is one of those easy to get excited about specs on paper. It’s a bit like the amount of memory in your PC or the speed of the CPU. The higher number, the better! What actually makes the difference when it comes to image quality? Well it’s a bit complicated. RAW is the ultimate codec, and the ultimate pain in the ass. LOG is great, no question. Lots of dynamic range, small file sizes, easy to edit and to apply a LUT. And for great LOG you need 10bit, right? Well it seems that on the A7S III the difference is much of the time impossible to even see. Not that this was not already proven by the Canon 1D C and that infamous MJPEG codec. The 8bit Canon LOG mode on that was incredibly nice. Fast forward nearly 10 years and there’s far less difference between 10bit 4:2:2 and 8bit 4:2:0 on the Sony A7S III than you might expect. New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/sony-a7s-iii-10bit-image-quality-vs-same-camera-in-8bit-with-surprising-results/

It’s been a bit of a trend for Nikon shooters to jump ship to Sony, Fuji and Panasonic in recent years. I even know a few myself. I am hearing rumours that Nikon might be about to finally wake up – to offer a broad range of filmmaking camera equipment (and lenses) for professionals. New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/has-nikon-got-a-cinema-camera-range-in-development/

I agree! X-T4 ergonomics not as nice as original X-H1 and feels cheaper too

Solution A - the battery grip ($999)! Solution B was the SL2-S. Not a great outcome really. A quite expensive one for users. There was never a firmware update to fix it.