ND64

What an ergonomics nightmare. Unless you want it on tripod all the time, then its a fixed display and not high res enough for landscape. Quoting Kasey: "what are you doing?". 

"it cuts out everything that distracts, limits, or stifle creativity".
I didn't know a grip that helps me hold the damn thing distracts my creativity. 

Its more like a successor for Z7ii Nikon would make, rather than Z8 competitor. 

Its like 18-55mm kit lens situation. Everybody thinks its a junk lens, because they've seen photos taken by that kind of lens, and most of them are not impressive; so they thought its a lens problem. But in reality, the proportion of amateur photographers who were still trying to learn and explore, in total users of that lens, was very high (because it was a kit and shipped with their first DSLR), so what others were seeing wasn't the lens problem, it was users' skill problem. The small group of people who use $30,000 camera, are the same people who know how to extract as much as much as possible from their gear, know how to get perfect lighting, and how to color grade. So when you see a Alexa footage, there is big chance you're seeing a team of elites performance.
You see a discipline among elite groups, and its that when they find a winning formula, like the combination of attributes we call "Arri look", they stick with it. Thats how they made us addicted to it; as we were seeing that formula over and over again in many different movies, to the point that we collectively call it "cinematic", like any other formula is either inferior or not legit. 

Its like 18-55mm kit lens situation. Everybody thinks its a junk lens, because they've seen photos taken by that kind of lens, and most of them are not impressive; so they thought its a lens problem. But in reality, the proportion of amateur photographers who were still trying to learn and explore, in total users of that lens, was very high (because it was a kit and shipped with their first DSLR), so what others were seeing wasn't the lens problem, it was users' skill problem. The small group of people who use $30,000 camera, are the same people who know how to extract as much as much as possible from their gear, know how to get perfect lighting, and how to color grade. So when you see a Alexa footage, there is big chance you're seeing a team of elites performance.
You see a discipline among elite groups, and its that when they find a winning formula, like the combination of attributes we call "Arri look", they stick with it. Thats how they made us addicted to it; as we were seeing that formula over and over again in many different movies, to the point that we collectively call it "cinematic", like any other formula is either inferior or not legit. 

TV business is probably gone. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-supplier-panasonic-cut-costs-101150905.html
A sword sharp enough that beheads the iconic Panasonic TV, can kill Panasonic camera too. 

The A/V companies have already recently been restructured which is partly why the pro-AV releases are so low key, and there's no cinema camera line-up any more - this part of the business was essentially nuked and anything remaining merged into the consumer side.
At least as I understand it, Panasonic will continue in consumer cameras... for now... but the professional side of things is ending.
And the consumer cameras will be a very low priority compared to the higher-margin parts of the business like batteries and whatever the fuck they think AI is useful for.
In the report the exec. uttered a very taboo word in the corporate world, which was "sentimental"...
Shareholders don't get rich from sentimentality and culturally important products like TVs, cameras or hifi.
They want the big growth areas and bubbles to rise up and take over, and for anything else to fade away including LUMIX.
The top Japanese execs at Panasonic attach a high sentimental value to their top consumer products of the past like TVs and cameras.
They want to continue.
They are one activist shareholder away from being forced to back down on that and then we will see the end of LUMIX altogether.

Its funny smartphone brands trying so hard to fake the "DSLR bokeh" but Gen Z do the subject separation by flash light. They don't care about the brand's solutions, they find their own. 
I think physical controls is part of the appeal. Here is what my smartphone live view looks like when I want to change the most basic settings. Almost 80% of the screen is occupied by the UI elements:

Now imagine I want to change the ISO. Not only a considerable area of the 17:9 screen is wasted due to 4:3 size of the LV, but almost the third of LV area is crowded with numbers:

Compare that to G7x. Its a small LCD, but at least most of the area is junk free. And it was Canon that was the most aggressive brand in icon inventions:

And then look at here, you can zoom in/out with your left hand when you're taking selfie or filming yourself. This control looks amateurish for us but its huge ergonomics advantage for TikTok generation:

But no just TikTokers. Look how this cyclist holds the G7x. Some PoVs here are impossible to take with a huge 6.7 inch smartphone:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-AOlHAscs8/
BTW, Canon marketing never managed to make an advertisement with 1.7m views that this guy did while not even trying. 

For exactly this wrong definition promoted by institutions like IMF we had to hear ridiculous terms like "transitory inflation" from politicians that wasn't. 

Don't want to start 2025 with a negative post, but I saw this depressing new year resolution today:

Nothing wrong with being a train operator, but we're at a point that being a train operator is a better career option than shooting pro video with RED cameras. 

Don't want to start 2025 with a negative post, but I saw this depressing new year resolution today:

Nothing wrong with being a train operator, but we're at a point that being a train operator is a better career option than shooting pro video with RED cameras. 

This sounds a bit like a short film that I recently helped shoot, but where I wasn't DP.  The DP was solid, but the director seemed really inexperienced.  I showed up a couple of times to shoot when the DP wasn't available and before we shot, I said "Ah, we should get the Tentacles connected to everything for timecode" and the director said to just shoot it.  I asked about the slate and he said that we'd just clap for sync.
"Alright, but the editor is really going to hate us, without a slate or timecode."
Sure enough, I'm now being asked to pull a bunch of selects from hours of footage to send to the editor because they got overwhelmed and annoyed when presented with a mountain of non-timecode footage without a slate to identify which take, etc.  It also didn't help that the footage for one scene had no camera audio due to my unforced technical error (we'd plugged someone else's Rode Wireless Go into the Ronin 4D during the previous scene and I'd toggled the left/right audio inputs to external vs the internal mic, I forgot to switch it back on the next day when we shot and didn't use the Wireless Go again).
Anyway, at least now I hope that the director has learned that you will pay a lot more in editor time/goodwill later if you don't take the minimal time to hook up timecode and use a slate on set.

I know it's bad to generalize but I want to open 2025 by doing so.
What is happening in the video, happened ten years early in computing and more specifically in the web. Huge numbers of people have had access to devices and skills that were previously restricted to a few people. Let's call it democratization, that is, a downward availability of resources. A fundamentally good thing that has triggered processes of competition and lower prices for customers.
But if we look at the issue from the point of view of those who have (or had) an IT company with employees or maybe even freelancers but not off the books, the issue also had negative effects: any pimply nerd from his bedroom would make you a website at bargain prices that you with your company would never be able to offer.
You will say, yes but the quality suffers. Yes we agree. but how many customers appreciate it or are able to tell the difference? for every wise customer there are ten who rush to buy at the lowest price and who gives a shit if the results are crappy.
Now, in my reasoning, replace computers with video cameras and software engineers with filmmakers.
Does that make sense?

Don't want to start 2025 with a negative post, but I saw this depressing new year resolution today:

Nothing wrong with being a train operator, but we're at a point that being a train operator is a better career option than shooting pro video with RED cameras. 

Interesting stories in that Reddit discussion. I guess we're dealing with Chinafication of content creation: super fast, short, low budget, cheap consumerism.

Don't want to start 2025 with a negative post, but I saw this depressing new year resolution today:

Nothing wrong with being a train operator, but we're at a point that being a train operator is a better career option than shooting pro video with RED cameras. 

Interesting post. I'm not familiar with him, but he's in my city (Portland, OR) and I ride the Max often.
As a full-time freelance videographer for the past ten years, I just did my end of year accounting for 2024 and I can officially say that my income has been on a downward trajectory since the pandemic. Video production is just not considered a specialty skill anymore. 2023 was so bad that I almost threw in the towel. 2024 was better, but still barely a living -- probably around half of what my friends with office jobs made. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, I'm currently underperforming the average income for other videographers in my area by a wide margin, but I have to wonder about the accuracy of their numbers. A lot of my local colleagues have been exiting the industry just as Airview has. People with genuine talent.
One trend I've been noticing in the past couple of years is that I'll show up with a car packed with lighting, multiple cameras, dolly track, etc. and yet some of my clients will often just tell me to hurry up and get the shot with no lighting or movement. And then we wrap early, which is nice. But overall, I feel like my work has been going downhill and this is really bothering me.
And then there are discussions like this taking place on Reddit, so I know that I am not alone.
Overall, I'm pretty discouraged and I need to figure out whether to ride it out or try something new.

Aside from those very odd Pentax users I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a happy new year resolution of buying more cameras.
What is on your wish list and how are you spending the Christmas holidays?
👍

For exactly the same reason Nikon will release the updated P1000 superzoom with no change but USB port. At this point they can't add more than a penny to the BoM of this kind of cameras. 

But when Nikon keeps an old sensor in a sub $1000 APSC body and upgrade everything else, the internet says "what a bummer". When Sony does the same, in a $6500 body, YouTubers call it "mind blowing", "perfect flagship". If Canon does the same its called "corporate greed", but when it comes to Sony its called "strategy".
It also debunks the old stupid notion, again, that Sony Semi keeps the best and state of the art sensor for Sony Imaging! Sony Semi can't send the best when Sony Imaging says "We don't want the best, cause its high development price lower our profit margin, thanks". So Sony users are stuck with 8k30p, and non downsampled 4k, for the next two years, while users of the other Sony Semi customer have 8k60p and downsampled 4k60. 

But when Nikon keeps an old sensor in a sub $1000 APSC body and upgrade everything else, the internet says "what a bummer". When Sony does the same, in a $6500 body, YouTubers call it "mind blowing", "perfect flagship". If Canon does the same its called "corporate greed", but when it comes to Sony its called "strategy".
It also debunks the old stupid notion, again, that Sony Semi keeps the best and state of the art sensor for Sony Imaging! Sony Semi can't send the best when Sony Imaging says "We don't want the best, cause its high development price lower our profit margin, thanks". So Sony users are stuck with 8k30p, and non downsampled 4k, for the next two years, while users of the other Sony Semi customer have 8k60p and downsampled 4k60. 

But when Nikon keeps an old sensor in a sub $1000 APSC body and upgrade everything else, the internet says "what a bummer". When Sony does the same, in a $6500 body, YouTubers call it "mind blowing", "perfect flagship". If Canon does the same its called "corporate greed", but when it comes to Sony its called "strategy".
It also debunks the old stupid notion, again, that Sony Semi keeps the best and state of the art sensor for Sony Imaging! Sony Semi can't send the best when Sony Imaging says "We don't want the best, cause its high development price lower our profit margin, thanks". So Sony users are stuck with 8k30p, and non downsampled 4k, for the next two years, while users of the other Sony Semi customer have 8k60p and downsampled 4k60. 

Few more from Weibo

What you're talking about is for EM-CCD sensors, not CMOS.
"Pixel clock rate is an important specification for CCD and EM-CCD cameras, but not for CMOS cameras because of chip architecture. Unlike CCD and EM-CCD cameras where photoelectrons from each pixel are converted into voltage one-at-a-time via a single amplifier, in CMOS cameras each pixel has its own amplifier, so conversion of photoelectrons happens in parallel in all the pixels."
From Hamamatsu company website. You know more than they do? 

Right wingers has X, liberals have Threads and BlueSky. Maybe we're heading for a situation where there is a film industry for conservatives and another film industry for liberals.