Emanuel

In an alleged board meeting, it was suggested but in the end, ZR narrowly got the vote.

I had an Alice cam on order.
they are scammers, I have zero proof of Alice cams actually delivered to buyers. My second wave cam was never ready to be delivered, even when wave 4 funding was being done.
At one point they asked for a full payment to get on the delivery list. Never was I contacted to pay the remainder for an existing, ready to ship unit.
now prominent Youtubers are posting about the new cam with Zero reference to the previous gen, as if it never existed. So there was no scam either…
 

Yeah good move approaching indie RED shooters rather than your usual hybrid / YT influencer.
Great review with strong footage. More I think of it, ZR is the perfect travel cam, street shooter. 

Yeah, they are the Alice people rebranded. A project that leaves their original customers behind and launches a "new" one. Lots of cases in Kickstarter, or in case of software it could be called "Luminar move"...

Very different from, like, the Pixii project.

1) This didn't go well for Sony when they released the QX100 and QX10 years ago.  It also didn't work well for Olympus with the Air A01.  Of course, none of them stuck a stupid bullshit "AI" label on the end of the camera name so who knows, maybe that's what was missing.
2) Fuck GenAI.  Of all the things I want integrated in my camera, that's at about the rock bottom of the list.
3) Note that at least 3 of the 6 testimonials that they include (screenshot below) don't actually say anything positive about the camera. "That's very different" is not an endorsement.  In fact, where I live, saying "that's different" is usually a form of backhanded insult.
4) It looks like it only supports wifi connection to the phone without a wired option.  In a best-case scenario, screen lag will be tolerable.  Go to any reasonably-crowded urban area, though, and enjoy the slide show and/or "connection lost" messages.
5) Even though they say you can choose from over 100 M43 lenses, I'd be worried about magsafe supporting any moderately heavy lens.  Even if it does, the camera will be really unbalanced.
6) When Caira goes out of business, there will be nobody left to update the app and the camera isn't usable without it.  Cross your fingers that Apple doesn't change some necessary API during an OS update.
7) Super early bird pricing is $695.  You can go buy a used Panasonic G85 in like new condition for about $430.  You can get an OM System OM-5 in like new condition for about $760 or in excellent condition for about $690.  The G85 is cheaper and pretty good - at least on a spec sheet, they seem similar - a little bulkier, maybe.  The OM-5 should be at least as good of a camera, also is quite small (not as small, of course, but very small by modern camera standards), and will keep working whether or not OM Systems stays in business or decides they want to stop making cameras.
8 ) Phone cameras are already very good these days.  Mine is more than good enough for any of the sort of images/videos that they seem to be promoting on their site.  If not, I'd probably just get a newer/better phone and not some janky add-on.  🙂 
9) Small company + Kickstarter means you'll probably be waiting a good long time and/or never actually receive the order.  Even though they say they have 500 mainboards already in stock, actually building and shipping hundreds of units is a really hard challenge that a lot of kickstarter projects don't take into account - and sometimes not even due to fault of the creators.  My 4x10 film camera that I ordered from an established brand (Ondu) who already made/shipped lots of pinhole cameras for years beforehand took WAY longer than expected, at least partly because suppliers kept sending out-of-spec parts to them.  The owner is a really great guy and we had some nice conversations when I asked my camera hadn't come despite that he said they were caught up on orders (turned out that their tool to collect shipping information lost a bunch of responses so he had to go manually collect them from a lot of people).
 
So anyway - for me, Caira is a hard no.  I'm basically the opposite of their target market, though.

The polite version is “no thank you”.

Finally got ZR yesterday. After changing all the settings like I have them in Z6iii, except Zebras and Vignette for R3D, got to test it a bit too.
1st, the screen is really good, you can change almost everything needed via the touch id and new menus quite quickly and intuitively. Need to figure out still what I need to set on those 4 custom buttons really.
The grip is tiny but feels ok in the hand. Still, with heavier lenses like 1kg 50 f1.2 and 135 f1.8 having the L shaped gage’s bigger grip seems to be a must, as it also has the Arca-swizz base plate for easy tripod use too. 
Quickly tested R3D NE vs NRaw to R3D hack with ISO 800 and 6400, and R3D NE was a bit cleaner in the shadows and seemed to hold the colors better too. 
The Z6iii EVF and all of it’s buttons in muscle memory seems still of course more convenient to use, but there is no going back to timy 3.2” screens after this. In various Panas and Z6iii I almost never used the screen.
Cinema tools has made a false color LUT, propably have to buy and try that too, if setting the zebras to 245 for R3D highlights does not work like zebras at 255 for NRaw.
The build quality seemed robust, but the shutter button needs a bit heavier press. Could not find the focus limiter in the menus either. Hopefully the weather allows to take both ZR and Z6iii outside, and see how the ZR handles, and what the footage looks like.
 

No reason that the iJustine channel can't publish a great video.....
Well done to the film-making team that created it:

Strange that there's no credit for editing.  Maybe that was also Nathan.
Well done to Apple for creating a phone that can produce results like this when used competently.
Any YouTuber with the desire and sufficient resources should be able to replicate such a thing.
It is a nice example of what the tech can do when used correctly by competent film-makers.  The night shots were pretty good.  I've found it to have impressive DR and low-light capabilities, but this was slightly more than I was anticipating.  Those areas of Tokyo are probably quite well lit though, and I bet there was a healthy dose of NR in post for select shots.  The results are still good though.

It's time
https://www.eoshd.com/news/why-its-time-for-fujifilm-to-go-full-frame/
And a full frame X100 without the RX1 III or Leica Q price tags would be fabulous thank you.

Seems there's something new to arrive (from t)here:
NDA is leaked here (for more details there and over there). This November, they say. (Actually, not totally exempt from pure nonsense, oh boy!)
It would be nice @MILCs side too! ;- )

Unboxing here - I should say that it looks amazing.

 

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256809809423132.html
I think it's newer than the one I got and I guess it's closer to $30 than $20.  If you look around, you can also find some cases that work well with it.  It can also work with some cases, as mentioned in this video by DP Journey.  I got one of those cases too, but I'm not planning to switch to it until the Apple case that I got with my phone is falling apart (should just be another 3-6 months or so, based on the lifespan of my other cases and the amount of damage I've already done to it.
The main change I made from his setup is that I went with a magsafe CF Express adapter that I can put on the little folding tripod gizmo.  He also just made a video about an upgrade tripod gizmo which looks nice, but didn't seem to have anything compelling enough that I'd upgrade from the original.
 

Seems there's something new to arrive (from t)here:
NDA is leaked here (for more details there and over there). This November, they say. (Actually, not totally exempt from pure nonsense, oh boy!)
It would be nice @MILCs side too! ;- )

At least for the 16 Pro, there are Magsafe threaded filter adapters.  I have one that takes a 67mm filter (or is it 58?).  The only real bummer is that it can't go on with my phone in the standard Apple case so I have to pop the phone out to use it.  Mine cost $20 or so IIRC.  Maybe something like that exists for the 17 as well?

The DOF adapter still seems like a crazy / borderline broken vintage lens emulation, but if that's the look you're going for then it's a good option to have.
What seems much more useful though is using it as a B or C camera, fitted with an ND and shooting manually.

Is this something? ; )
To me, this outcome doesn’t seem negligible at all. Quite the contrary.
No one invented the wheel this time. But it seems that has now been perfected, evolving in a way even the most oblivious cannot miss.
To me, it would/will likely be the 1st round :- )

I like the colors and overall image of this camera, especially for the low price, but Nikon definitely sacrificed DR for a faster readout. This is from G. Undone's test:

10.9 usable stops in 6K R3D NE is not great for a modern cinema camera. NR will get you another stop, but it's not an ideal starting point. By comparison, the Komodo 6K scored 12.5 usable stops in 6K R3D and the Komodo-X was at 12.9 when tested by CineD.
CVP's latitude test was also fairly extensive as it tested both native ISOs:


The good news is that you don't lose much DR when switching into the higher base. The bad news is that, no matter which base you use, most of its competitors have an extra stop in the highlights:





As for under exposure, it is usable to under 3, but no more. It is RAW after all, so this poor result is understandable when compared with the Sony cameras.




 
 

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China.
These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families.  The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits.  The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796.
These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly.
Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom.








Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app.
The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes.  These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match.





All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths.  Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.

For sure.
The “18 stops” claim comes from the manufacturer (sensor-level, special HDR mode). It’s plausible as a sensor specification under controlled conditions/multi-exposure HDR — but practical DR measured in real cameras has been substantially lower due to optical and pipeline factors.
Although the sensor itself has a “theoretical” 18 stops, many other factors (noise, analog-to-digital conversion, image pipeline, compression, amplifier architecture, pixel readout, linearity, saturation capability) limit the actual practical performance.
 
Manufacturer's claim = sensor under optimized conditions (two/more readings, dual-gain, on-sensor HDR, internal measurements). This isn't necessarily the DR you'll get in a final phone/camera.
Actual limits: optics (flare/veiling glare), amplifiers, pipeline noise, compression, RAW/JPEG processing — all of which reduce useful DR.
 
https://www.imatest.com/docs/full.html
Imatest/DxOMark measure the system, not just the sensor die (photodiodes (light-capturing pixels), transistors, amplifiers, readout lines, A/D converters, etc.). 
Lab values applied to cameras tend to show much lower useful DR on sensors of this size — hence the large difference between manufacturer claims and practical DR.
 
However, if this OmniVision sensor actually comes to fruition with 18 practical stops, that will be revolutionary for such small sensors — it would be worth watching for announcements and technical tests.

The best camera is the one you hold ; )
...and that's the "toy" when in good hands! :- )
 

@kye, your framing, beyond that of a traveller, unveils the eye of an artist :- )

Here's some more grabs.







 

I started this thread by talking about the GH7, but I think the iPhone 17 Pro has also come of age (for me at least).
My goals for using this is to keep it in my pocket, be able to shoot super quickly using the default camera app, and focus on the compositions and capturing the events in front of the camera while it does all the auto-everything required for a good quality capture.
First impressions and thoughts from a few weeks of using it.
4K Prores HQ files in Apple Log 2 look great and are a joy to work with in Resolve (see examples below) All the lenses seem to work well and even up to the 8x 200mm are completely usable hand-held, and if leaning your hand against something the 8x is almost locked-off It records 6 channels of audio, and they appear to all be independent and available in the NLE (see image below) which might(?) be useful in difficult situations where there's wind noise in one or one channel clips etc? While recording Prores Log the default camera app shows you the log image and doesn't have an option to apply a LUT, so although it's a great way to be sure you're recording LOG, it's hardly ideal.  Hopefully they fix this in an update. Audio channels in Resolve:

Some frame grabs from out the hotel window in HK.  Bear in mind these were shot with the default camera app, through multiple layers of tinted glass, and have had a film emulation grade put on top of them.
1x 24mm camera:

8x 200mm camera:

with a bit of sharpening:

with too much sharpening (unless you're a "cinematic Youtuber"):

1x 24mm camera (ignore the reflections in the window):

8x camera:

8x camera with sharpening:

and in terms of DR / latitude, here's the 1x image brought up ~2.5 stops:

I haven't tested it in low-light yet, but to me, all this essentially means that the camera is sufficiently technically capable that I can shoot with it without feeling like the technical factors are overly restrictive.  This is incredibly impressive, given that even cameras like the GH5 needed you to pay attention to their limits in some situations.
For the first time I feel like if something happened to my 'real' camera and all I had to capture a trip is my phone I wouldn't feel like I'd stuffed up.  This is the first trip I haven't packed a backup camera body, which has given me the ability to pack a couple of extra lens options, thus 'upgrading' the GH7 rig as well.

Another frame grab showing a bit more DR.  Same Resolve + FLC workflow, but no grain added, so what you see below is the noise and compression artefacts from the Prores.
Default exposure:

-2 stops to see where the clipping point is:

+2 stops to look at the shadow detail:

Very serviceable, especially considering this was shot from the window of a moving train (the OTHER reason why rolling shutter matters).

Matching Iphone colour to Arri... quite close!