Marcio Kabke Pinheiro

Over the years I have invested so much in taking M43 underwater (GH2 GH3 GH4 GH5) that just the idea that it has reached the end of the line pisses me off like a beast.
I am still convinced that M43 is the best format in existence for underwater shooting. The size of the sensor and lens allows for minimal lens ports, and with modern wet lenses you get a very compact kit (housing and port/wet lens).
Switching to FF while maintaining the same quality means having an underwater kit at least twice the size and a bare expense of at least 20K euros if not more.  Also, given the current availability of underwater accessories, it almost certainly means saying goodbye to Panasonic and jumping into the hands of Sony or Canon.
If I were a professional earning from underwater work it would be an attractive investment. but for an amateur like me the jump is almost impractical unless you are really rich.
What a shame.

Already said that in the forum - I'm an amateur (each day more amateur, in fact...), and started seriously in stlls / video with MFT; a GH2, in fact. Still have it here, and will never let it go (part because of nostalgia, part because the value is so low now - and its colors have something).

Compactness and discretion were (and is) my motto - and MFT still the champion in ths regard. And, for years, was more than enough for me.

First problem was PDAF. Never bothered my old use cases - travel, concert shooting, streets. CDAF and Single AF worked very well in all these situations. But then I became a father, and a child running around soon reverted all that - Continuous AF became mandatory, specially in video. My loved GX9 was out (albeit its eye detection works even better than current Fujis). Only PDAF cameras in MFT: the Olympuses, E-M1s and E-M5 MKIII. The latter would work very well for me, despite video being not on par with Panasonics.

But I sensed that OM Digital and Panasonic wanted to make the format a niche one. Adventure / wildlife for OM, video only for Panasonic. And looks like I was right. OM put all efforts in a wildlife / adveture body (the OM-1), and all the new lenses are big zooms and big Pro lenses, a lot of them bigger and heavier than APS-C ones. Panasonic released the GH6 (the first GH model full target to video, for stills the GH5 and specially yhe G9 are better), and the only new lens was the 9mm (terrific, would buy one in pre-order if already in the system) for the vlogger crowd, prior to that were only the big f/1.7 zooms.

The body size advantage was gone; and now the lenses too. Had to forcefully moved to Fuji.

Still have the GH2, my E-P1, and kept the Oly 45mm and the 12-32 zoom to use with them. Maybe will get a used E-M5 MK III or OM-5 used in the future, and always keep looking for a Pen-F, the most beautiful digital camera ever made. But I guess that Panasonic will give a last try with a GH with PDAF, if not suceeed will leave the format. And OM will stay small, surfing the wildlife crowd to the last possible moment.

Lots of missed oportunities in the format - market claiming for a X100V and Panasonic not taking the oppportunity to a new LX100, a smaller and MUCH more versatile camera. Or a new Pen F with a new pancake fast lens. Or newer zooms without OIS, smaller and lighter, like the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 APS-C.

Would like to see a future for the format besides a niche one, but I can't. 

Chris and Jordan said in a PetaPixel podcast that they did not reviewed the X-S20 because...no unit was sent to them, as I suspected.

Looks like Fuji really prioritized Europe - in the last days lots of reviews popped on Youtube from European people, and looks like there was a paid Malta trip to try the camera. Don't know if there was really few units available and Fujifilm in USA and Canada had no units available, but there it is.

Unfortunately, most of the reviews are 80% talking about the features and very few movie tests. In fact, the most useful review was from a Australian fashion photographer, Julia Trotti, which plugged a HDMI recorder on camera and went to a photo shoot, and made some test videos. She had zero intention to be technical, but was the only one that showed the new AF system in action.
 

I've brought my X-S10 to a playground and made still and video from my daughter, using the Sigma 18-50 and boy, did not remembered that the AF was SO bad. Specially shots when eye / face detection af target is green, but looking in the computer after the shot was out of focus. And was with only her in the frame - if my wife was in the frame too, the af target goes nuts and jumps constantly between them (albeit looks like that it is not a Fuji exclusive behaviour - saw reports that it happens with other brands too).

Video was a tad better, but using single area af and movinf the box with the joystick. If Fuji had object tracking in vídeo, probably would be "perfect" (not pin sharp, but it is not critical as it is in stills).

Comparing to the footage of the camera interface in the Julia's videos with my experience in the weekend, looks like (comapred to the X-S10):

- The eye / face detection works better and with the subject farther, in stills. 
- Better in movies too, but saw some points losing the af.
- But it looks like that Fuji AF still is behind the competition - worse for sure than Sony and Canon, probably than Nikon, and a little behind from Panasonic in the S5II.

I will probably upgrade, because of the battery (the playground shot was around 70 stills and 5 minutes of 4k video, and the battery already dropped more than half the charge), 10-bit video (never used any log mode beacuse of the 8-bit in the X-S10) and the better-ish AF - and since Kaizen is dead, any more improvements on Fujifilm will the in the cameras with the newer processor. But I think will no be a very big improvement.

Yes, but have they shot weddings?

Very interested in the camera, probably will upgrade, but...it was a VERY strange launch.

First, all the usual suspects that do reviews for video (the now Petapixel couple, Gerald Undone, Toneh, Kai, etc) did not got units, as they usually do. From the more traditional reviewers, only Gordon Laing and Cine-D got one. 

And...almost no one showed the new AF system in full action, or described it in detail. Most of them said (and could be true) that they got units with no final firmware. 

Other, like Chris from Pal2Tech (the great surprise in the review batch - he is a very good Fuji reviewer, but never got an unit) showed a little, said that was way better than all the Fuji that he used, even better than X-T5 post firmware update. He had a excuse - only got the unit for 2 days, and was sent by a Fuji representative, no Fuji itself. Another reviewers also mentioned very short time with the camera.

Also in this regard - most of the reviewers are european, specially british ones. But most of them, never heard before.

My two cents:
- There were not a lot of ready units available, hence people have to test it breifly and return the camera to be sent to another reviewer;
- About AF tests: or (the "I hope" answer) the firmware as not totally final and will got more tweaks before release, hence it was not allowed deep tests, or (the "damn..." answer) the AF still not good enough and Fuji hope to move some units in preorder before the not so good news becomes spread.

Yep, the main reason for me to keep the Sigma is the constant aperture - most for the hassle to readjust exposure / ND filter after changing the focal lenght.

About OIS, yes, is a necessity for non-IBIS bodies (and the OIS of the 18-55 Fuji is kinda good for video, for OIS standarts), but with OIS, it performed better than the Fuji - because Fuji tune their IBIS for photos, not for video. With the Fuji, small movements becomes "jumpy", because you start the move the camera, and suddenly IBIS realizes it and tries to catch up; with the 18-55 OIS, this behaviour is amplified. With the Sigma, it is less apparent.

To Fuji becomes perfect, they need to hire an AF guy from Sony and a IBIS guy from OM Digital or Panasonic...

As an X-S10 user, and since Fuji will never release my dream camera (an X-E4 with dual dials and more buttons, IBIS and 10-bit video, even with 30 min limit), this one looks like the one for an amateur like me.

In theory, solve all my biggest gripes with the X-S10:
- Battery life: with Boost mode enabled (the "full" boost mode, not the IBIS one), is the greatest battery eater camera that I had (never had a OG BMPCC). Other day, brought it to a birthday party to film my daugther, and the first battery was dead after around 100 frames and 10 minutes of 4k video. Is abysmal.
- Autofocus: Fuji still lags behind other brands, but the newest models looks better - and this one have revamped algos (which are now available to X-T5 and X-H2 as firmware updates); from the first impressions, looks like a lot better. I have troubles with X-S10 AF even with stills - and I hope that eye af in video with more than one person is frame becomes usable.
- IBIS: one more stop, which don't matter too much - for stills Fuji IBIS is good enough from a long time, but in video it keeps "fighting" with the beginning of a movement. Looks better now too - albeit still far from Olympus.

10-bit is very welcome, F-Log becomes usable now. 4k60 welcome too. Another great revamp is that the four C positions on mode dial now could store video and stills settings (in X-S10, only stills). 6,2k open gate 10-bit 4:2:2 is a surprise in a camera of this size, as the possibility of external raw recording. In fact, is really a baby X-H2S without a stacked sensor and shorter record times - already know people that were planning to buy a 2nd X-H2S and now will use X-S20 as B-cams.

The bad:
- No weather sealing;
- Since the body was slightly revamped for the bigger battery, and cabling for the fan and headphone jack, Fuji lost the opportunity make some more modifications: since there is no weather sealing, the front dial should be clickable. And the camera should have the front button of the X-H line to change focus modes (or other function). This would bring 2 more custom buttons without taking any other space.
- Would like a 3,6 mp EVF, but even the R7 have the same panel, is par for the course;
- STILL NO GENERAL OBJECT TRACKING in movie mode, Fuji? My god, even the Olympus, who had an atrocious one, now have it.

My decision will be determined by the final price here in Brazil. We have a 60% import tax for everything, and a lot of cameras are the double of the US price. Fujifilm here sometimes lauch with a "better" difference, when I got the X-S10, it was "only" 22% up to US price.
And...some reasoning. It solves a lot of my gripes, and is even overkill for an amateur like my me. In fact, with a revamped AF algorithm and a smoother IBIS, the X-S10 could be enough for me. The X-S20 could be my "final" camera (since it have all that I need and more), but with the added costs (camera, a new extra battery, new license for C1 or DxO, new UHS-II cards) will not be a cheap one.

About lenses - just got the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8, beauty little thing. Compared to the 18-55 f/2.8-4, is not so much sharper in stills (don't know if it is my copy), but liked it a lot for video - better AF, MUCH less noisy, and, surprisingly, IBIS does a better job the the "Dual IS" of the older one.

2 days ago, hearing about the tragic death of Ben Kweller's son (very sad news indeed - Ben almost died from monoxide carbon intoxication when rising to success, stopped his career for 9 years, and was just coming back to form, and is a very gentle guy), I remembered that I shot videos from some song in his Rio's concert in 2012 with a Vivitar Series 1 105mm f/2.5 Macro made by Kiron.

Never used it as a macro, but as a tele...maybe is the sharpest old lens that I have, tied with the Contax-Zeiss 135mm f/2.8. In fact, is so sharp that it looks like a modern lens. Got it for around US$90, with original box, just returned from CLA - it is pristine, without a single dust spec, to this day. Good times.

This was the video - GH2 with Sanity hack, no Ibis or manual focus aids. Vimeo dropped the resolution to 720p, the original file is much sharper. Another remembering - the GH2 mics were superb, the audio is from the on board mics, only with a little EQ.
 
And all my thoughts to Ben - after this gig he spent hours talking with the fans, taking photos, always with a smile in his face. Hope that that smile returns soon.

Yep. Their comparometer image test, together with DPReview one, was one of the best ways to compare cameras.

The RAW case was dismissed, and Nikon is free to keep it.

Dave Etchells just wrote an article on PetaPixel telling the story of the closure of Imaging Resource. 

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/10/imaging-resource-founder-shares-the-tale-of-his-sites-untimely-demise/

Yep. Their comparometer image test, together with DPReview one, was one of the best ways to compare cameras.

In fact, adding to the stacked sensor (and perhaps being even more important), the Z9 / Z8 have a dual dedicated image feed - one for the processor, and one exclusive for the EVF / LCD.
Is a thing that I always thought that should be standard to mirrorless cameras, but since it is still so rare, should be costly to implement. I guessed that it could be done splitting the signal after it leaves the sensor, but looks like it should be implemented in the sensor itself.

Imaging Resource is gone (really), without announcement.

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/08/imaging-resource-is-now-offline-as-the-camera-website-shuts-its-doors/

Was my preferred, above DPReview.

Imaging Resource is gone (really), without announcement.

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/08/imaging-resource-is-now-offline-as-the-camera-website-shuts-its-doors/

Was my preferred, above DPReview.

Imaging Resource is gone (really), without announcement.

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/08/imaging-resource-is-now-offline-as-the-camera-website-shuts-its-doors/

Was my preferred, above DPReview.

Imaging Resource is gone (really), without announcement.

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/08/imaging-resource-is-now-offline-as-the-camera-website-shuts-its-doors/

Was my preferred, above DPReview.

Imaging Resource is gone (really), without announcement.

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/08/imaging-resource-is-now-offline-as-the-camera-website-shuts-its-doors/

Was my preferred, above DPReview.

Just adding to the discussion: in May 24th there will be a Fujji X Summit, and, according to rumour sites, the X-S20 will be announced. As a X-S10 user, really waiting for it (my dream Fuji camera would be a X-E5 with some controls back and IBIS, but Fuji will never put IBIS in their X-E ou X-Pro lines...)
 

The number of stops in IBIS is irrelevant - except for marketing purposes.  
The difference between a great IBIS and meh IBIS systems isn't the number of stops, it's things like the travel of the system (how large the movement can be before it runs out of travel to compensate), how fast it can react (high-frequency performance), motor strength, etc.  When you see an IBIS system failing to compensate for camera movement it will be limitations of these aspects.
The GH5 has similar number of stops as many other cameras at the time with inferior overall performance, it was some combination of other factors that made the difference between them.

The RAW case was dismissed, and Nikon is free to keep it.

The RAW case was dismissed, and Nikon is free to keep it.

@Andrew Reidpost mentioning Stevie's Digicams...my go to site when choosing my first digicam, a Powershot A20.

Some weeks ago I remembered it, went to discover when it ended...was when Stevie himself died. 

Loved DC Resource too, Jeff closed the site to work on DPReview, and left some years ago.

Good times.

Forums were toxic as hell. But their Comparison Tool helped me a lot.

But Amazon have almost infinity storage. They could keep the site open as an archive.

(but probably they won´t because will remember everyone that they killed it)