Marcio Kabke Pinheiro

In my view was a mistake to drop APS-C L Mount.

If they make a APC-S GM5, with the Sony 26mp sensor, IBIS, a decent EVF, with PDAF and their LUT system, I would switch form Fuji ASAP. With a Sigma 18-50 would be a winner.

Don´t want to develop APS-C lenses? Bring Viltrox to the party. Their 75mm f/1.2 is the sharpest lens that I've ever had. Their cheap primes are good and affordable. TT Artisan is doing interesting stuff too.

What is MUCH more embarassing for Panasonic is that they launched it with a 26mm f/8 manual focus lens that costs $199.

VIltrox just launched a 28mm F/4.5 lens WITH autofocus, with almost the same size. Much sharper, much brighter, and, as said, with AF. For $99.

3 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

 

Came here just to put this link, heheheh

Will try this Arri Log trick in my X-S20.

About the X-M5 - dismissed it because it have no EVF and IBIS (and I have the X-S20, that have the same internals). But this damn thing is so cute and is the 1st Fuji with a very competitive price launched in a long time (looking at you, X-T50), that I'm tempted.

And compared to the camera that is its competitor, the Sony ZV-E10 II, apart from the AF, it is better in almost every aspect. And cheaper.

Very good move, Fuji. Now bring me a X-E5 with IBIS, EVF and a 40mp sensor (for stills - the X-S20 is MUCH better than the 40mp models for video).

Got one some time ago for around 280 euros in today's exchange.

Of course with some problems, but all far from deal breakers.
- The back LCD have some coating delamination, but only visible when it is turned off. Turned on, zero problems - id just a cosmetic issue.
- The EVF have a little "fogging", looks like the camera is using a black mist filter. But the stills and video ouput are perfect, hence for framing and exposure evaluation, is a no problem.
- There is a dust spot on the sensor. It is a very "glued" one - tried to dislodge it with a variety of methods, but with no sucess. Only appear with very close apertures in stills, and in video with some directional light.

Planning to clean the sensor myself - iFixit have a complete and detailed disassembly guide, and I guess that the sensor could be removed without removing the lens assembly like in their guide. Biggest trouble - to realign the sensor again after removing, the sensor assembly is mounted with screws + springs. Common method is to mark the screws positions, tight them to the end and count the number of rotations befor removing; my plan is to use this method in conjuction with a precision digital depth meter (already bought one), to measure the depth between the lens assembly and the sensor backplate around the screws. Using the two methods together, I guess that I could mount it again with good precision.

The images looks like that have a bit of "halation" - much less than the EVF one. Since the camera came from a beach city, my take is that some of the sea moisture entered the EVF and on the sensor surface, one more reason to clean the sensor.

But even in the current state, was weel worth the price. Is my live concert camera - since security generally have rules agains "cameras that change lenses", this one they cannot do nothing against. Stils are very good with a bit of sharpening post. Video have the greener cast of the GH4 pipeline era, but is good enough, and filming in Cinelike-D with a good LUT have a solid quality.

Love the ergos - I was "raised" with Panasonic cameras, and their ergos / interface are second nature for me. The camera feels a bit hollow, though.

One particular thing (that I don't know if it another issue from my unit) - the external mic input is VERY hot. With the external mike that I use on all my cameras (a Andycine M1), the level explodes even when turned down to a minimum. Will buy an attenuator cable (in fact, a headphone volume controller) to lower the input signal. The internal mikes were bad as the last Panasonic ones are - since it had two big grilles, I expected that were good ones like the GH2 had, but...not.

Like it a lot - my old M43s cameras had a a bit better IQ, and the X-S20 have a much better IQ, but for the praticality (and in most cases, being allowed into venues) and the current prices, was a very good aquisition.

On 9/1/2024 at 4:10 PM, Andrew Reid said:

Sorry but this doesn't explain why the longer form written journalism is going away.

The tech market that Andandtech covers might be mature but it's still absolutely huge in terms of interest and enthusiasts, and there's a wealth of discovery to be done, debate and bait online devoted to GPUs, gaming, and such like. LinusTechTips on YouTube is huge, one of the highest subscriber counts anywhere.

This is all the fault of phones, you can't READ a phone like you can a magazine due to the small screen, it's just not very nice to read long stuff on a phone and you're much better off sitting at a desk instead with a laptop.

You'll be surprised how many people use their phone as a laptop or desktop replacement now.

Also it is far too easy for social media and clickbait aggregators / rumors sites to hoover up other site's content and act as a link farm or highlights reel without attribution.

And that is how people now digest the content.

In the days when the camera rumors sites were interested in EOSHD blog posts, their link-through to the source was of no real benefit to me - they got all the views, and I had virtually nothing out of it.

Andandtech could go on publishing deep dives on Apple's architecture and such like but 90% of the delivery of this would be done by aggregators, reddit, Facebook, etc.

So the internet is truly broken with social media and it will soon die, or become too financially unrewarding to bother working with.

Smartphones made it worse, but people nowadays simply don't READ. Nothing. Never. In any form.

Is all video and podcasts - generally speed up by 1.5x times.

And Anantech (which is probably one of the sites that I've visited most in my life) had another problem - since the Anand's departure, it became excessively technical. It always was the most technical site, but Anand had talent to make a deeply technical review be pleasent to read. In the last years, the writing there became ONLY technical, to a point that a person that like that kind of review unpleasant to read.

(and to find a hardware test dedicated to filming software is almost impossíble - the closest is the Puget tests, which are very limited. And there goes a bunch of people spending a bunch in a top Ryzen config with a beastie RTX card only to discover that it could not decode 10bit 4:2:2 on hardware)

On 8/1/2024 at 5:31 PM, Ninpo33 said:

Hahaha, I literally have been thinking about finding an old broken FX6 or a demo unit and hollowing it out to slide in a smaller mirrorless. The new trend of "Cineback" style mods seems to show the desire for more modular compact builds and actually look quite nice IMO. Still, would be even better to have a stealth Sony A1 hiding out in a ENG camera LOL

 

Caleb Pike (aka DSLR VIdeo Shooter) started a new business (in fact, it is his main business now) of making these "cube like" attacment for mirroless cameras. The Sony ones are cool, even have space for small fans to prevent overheating.

On 8/6/2024 at 2:20 AM, KaiS said:

That’s something I have long thought, even before smart phone cameras got multi-lens arrays.

A “real” camera, built without the space restrictions that you find in a smartphone, combined with the intelligence and processing power of a smartphone would be total game changer.

As trivial as this sounds, no one has done it up to today.

There is a software problem. Android is too heavy for a camera operating system, except if somene makes a VERY lightweight and specialized fork - and I guess that for use the original Android apps, would be not lightweight enough.

Maybe someone should give Tizen another look - just for the interface part. About apps, there should be a basic editor on camera, and social media posting would be much better be done by some kind of server that receives the pictures with login credentials and post it on social media; but nowadays almost all social media don't have anymore exernal APIs (because ads).

Pixii is doing very interesting things with Linux in their cameras, but is far from smartphones.

On 8/4/2024 at 11:06 PM, Caleb Genheimer said:

Also I’ll buy it sight unseen if they use ANYONE other than Sony Semi for the sensor. The entire industry needs to buck their stranglehold somehow, it kinda kills innovation. I’m really hoping that the RGBW sensors from BMD trickle down to budget models and shake up the market. We need better ADCs and/or dual gain now. Sony has squeezed BSI for all it’s worth. The codecs are ahead of the sensors honestly.

I guess we still have the mistery about how makes the 25mp sensor of the GH6/7 and G9Mk II?

In the launch, Panasonic hinted that it was supplied by a "unusual party", if I remember correctly.

I'm in the verge of a computer upgrade (forced to update to Windows 11 before the end of 2025, because MS will pull the lug on Windows 10 support), and since my X-S20 records on H.265 10-bit 4:2:2, I've searching about this decoding issues on timeline.

Bottom line: Puget Systems have a chart that is constant updated, showing what codecs are hardware decoded (encoding is another story). H265 10-bit 4:2:2 are currently ONLY supported by Intel CPUs using QuickSync (which means that you have to choose a CPU with integrated GPU, even if you will use a external GPU).

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/what-h-264-and-h-265-hardware-decoding-is-supported-in-davinci-resolve-studio-2122/

Worse: I've been trying for weeks to discover which codecs are HW decoded by the newer Snapdragon CPUs, and even in Qualconn pages I could no get this info.

On 7/11/2024 at 1:50 PM, zlfan said:

I just tried a sentence of "gh7 is the perfect camera for street videography and event videography." using the female reveal ai voice over. wow. nice. it is not perfect as the tone has no excitement in it, but it is very human voice like. 

Maybe the AI is a Sony fanboy.

On 7/11/2024 at 10:03 AM, BTM_Pix said:

Or the whole thing is completely overblown because four minutes of shock content on that is far easier to produce than four minutes of representative content produced by light from the great outdoors actually hitting the sensor.

I'm absolutely no fan of this fella but this is a far more representative real world performance evaluation (queued up to overheating section).

In looking at that section, he didn't have the screen out and maybe the fro was acting as a shade and no mention is made of recovery time and would have been better using a dummy battery in that situation etc etc.

With Fro's hair, the camera is ALWAYS on a shade. 🙂

One (not very elegant solution) is using some 3rd party fan. I had the 1st version of the Ulanzi one and tested in a torture test in my X-S20 (35 degrees Celsius, 12 o clock, camera under full sun) - without the fan the camera overheated after around 25 minutes, with the fan it lasted until the battery died. The newer version uses a srping to attach in the camera back, much better than the suction cups of the 1st one.

Smallrig launched external fan these days too.

Kinda clunky solutions, but if you are cash strapped, it works (here in Brazil cameras costs A LOT more, and the 1st ZV-E10 was a huge seller).

14 hours ago, lsquare said:

Has anyone here bought ND filters with their Pocket 3? Which ones are worth buying? I'm thinking of getting DJI and calling it a day, but I think Tiffen has its own. I don't know if it's any good. 

Got a Neewer kit, looks like they are ok.

The filter should be very low profile, if not the gimbal would not turn the head to storage properly (the DJI ones AFAIK have this problem).

On 6/24/2024 at 3:46 PM, Emanuel said:

LOL Annoying before to getting fine, isn't it? It's living with or leave it! : )

What is unique is this combo to give that characteristic touch/look by its own:

There's no simply competitor at this such small camera segment level, useless to look for anything else.

The most of the look is given by the black mist filter - people love to use very heavy "misting" with this camera.

Personally, I thnk that it gives too much "halation" in the highlights, look like a very detailed scene of the 1st Unreal game. 🙂

A weaker one could take away a good bit of the "digital edges" of the image (which is desirable, Pocket 3 image is VERY sharp, even with the sharpness all turned down) without looking as a meth trip.

7 hours ago, EspenB said:

I think its pretty certain that both the S9 and the GH7 was shown and handed out at the Lumix press junket in Osaka.

I guess that @Dave Maze now could confirm it. 🙂

7 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Gerald didn’t mention any of this in his recent video? He’s clearly well out of the loop.

I reckon they all also got those secret flying cars but just can’t talk about it under NDA and don’t get to ‘keep them’, but can use them for the duration of their life to fly backwards and forwards to Japan for every new camera launch.

I’m seriously considering switching my status from working photographer to industry shill…

Calm down, looks like that the hooker thing is not used anymore. 😄

12 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Would be wild if Panasonic delivers raw in the GH7 via "an external unit"

But the external unit is merely a battery grip with an extra card slot. 

Or a card slot in the XLR unit?

Yep, it is coming - not surprising giving the latest news.

https://www.43rumors.com/confirmed-panasonic-will-announce-the-new-lumix-gh7-on-june-5/

"Unconfirmed" specs:

 

Most features of the Lumix G9II 

internal RAW

new 32bit float recording methods via a new XLR unit 

has large fan

Lumix LAB app support

in Stock in July

On 5/31/2024 at 2:25 AM, Davide DB said:

 

Good catch indeed!

What about from the standpoint of pure image? Is the C70 comparable to the K-X? I didn't want to use the word cinematic 😉

Yes, when run&gun meets cinematography 

 

 

"Chimp Empires" should be a documentary about Fujifilm X-Pro 3 users - the ones that raved about the stupid back LCD that brought back "real photography" and after made a class action suit against Fujifilm for the LCD ribbon cables being broken (because, of course, in real life, not making online dick measuring, the open the fking LCD all the time to chimp the photos).

On 6/1/2024 at 8:49 AM, ac6000cw said:

Compared to D-Lux 7/LX100 ii, it's got OLED EVF and higher res rear screen, plus USB-C charging. See https://m.dpreview.com/news/3471020867/leica-continues-compacts-with-d-lux-8-featuring-four-thirds-type-sensor

Yep, it is OLED, finally the field sequential one is gone. Never had problem with tearing, but with resolution and, specially, magnification - it was a 16:9 panel, in still modes is kinda small.

But looks like that the new camera will be the GH7.

Another hint that it is really the GH7 (albeit the discontinuation of the GH6 is the stonger signal): Petapixel review of the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 was filmed in a "redacted" camera. If someone wants a first look of the GH7 footage, there it is.

GH6 reminds me of the GX8 - both good cameras, but with some flaws that made them look bad.

GX8 was somewhat big (not a problem for me, but for a lot of people), its IBIS does not work for video, and had a massive shutter shock problem. And was the GH4 color science era, not the best also.

GH6 was the last bastion of the Panasonic's DFD stubbornness (like the were for ages with IBIS, "OIS is better"), and was the first GH camera (remembering that the "H" was for "hybrid") that had worse stills quality than the previous generation. Both problem were solved with the G9 II.

41 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

The “new” Leica camera, internally at least, is their version of the Panasonic LX100ii.

It is wearing a different jacket so is far more like a mini Q than an LX100ii and it has the very elegant Leica interface and the RAWs are DNG.

Those differences make it a very nice little camera to be fair but the price….

Well, obviously.

 

Yep, I know - I have the OG LX100 and looking for a reasonable priced LX100 for years...

But after seeing that Leica really ported their interface to the camera, I've raised some doubts - because the Leica interface works better with that new buttom layout (the camera have fewer buttons than the LX100, which already could have 1 or 2 more...), which make it harder to work with Pansonic menus.

Somebody mentioned that the EVF is new, a OLED one now - a good move, becasue almost everyone hated that field sequential one. But no confirmation until now.

It is kinda cute - hope that drive the LX100 II / D-Lux 7 down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiovu0DzIz8

12 hours ago, kye said:

I'll start making popcorn.

Probably the Panasonic version of the "new" Leica camera.

The discover that Pansonic used stock photos (even one from a Nikon Ambassador) in the S9 brochures is not helping either.

Tie this PR disaster with the Asahi reports that Panasonic camera division could be axed...

4 hours ago, kye said:

Here's my manifesto for the humble zoom lens.

In my tests the expensive lenses looked vibrant and clean and sharp, which is to be expected.  The Helios looked high-resolution but not sharp, and had a softer rendering which people love, and the 14-42mm kit lens looked somewhere in the middle...  

From my post:

"Then, the mighty 14-42 kit lens.  It has some of that vintage look going on.  It's kind of like somewhere between the Helios and the other two.  It raises the shadows a bit, but isn't uncontrollable in direct sun, and the edges are a little softer.  A happy medium perhaps?  It's also a zoom, has OIS, and if you break it you can just go get another one from a friend or on eBay or for $5 at a market somewhere with a GF2 with a dead battery."

... and yet, the expensive lenses and the Helios are ultra desirable, but I'm probably the only person to ever live that thinks the kit zoom might offer the best of both worlds.

Had the two 14-42 kits from Panasonic - the first and bigger one, that was the kit zoom on the GH2, and the second smaller one. The older was not grat, but the smaller was very ok. Using in f/5.6 (where I used all my m43 lenses when travelling with sun), plenty good indeed.

In the last trip with m43), used the "little gem", the pancake 12-32. Was one of the m43 lenses that I did not sold, very good, sharper than the 14-42. Is exactly what Panasonic should do in FF.

I asked for a small f/4.5 zoom lens for FF because in terms of DOF, is like a "f/2.9ish" in APS-C - and I'm using the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 and in most cases the DOF is ok for general use.

The manufacturer that makes a FF small body with a small 24-60 or 24-70 f/4.5 (collapsible, if possible) with good (don't need to be very top) image quality, probably will get me in the future.

Just saw the Gerald piece. Some good points. About his rant to Lumix, his 1st point is very strong (being put out just for use STRANGE in a title) but the 2nd one...not invinting he because it was not a camera for him could be or not a bad point.

They could honestly thought that is like (in a exaggeration) invite a smartphone shooter to a Arri Alexa launch. The S9 is for smaller creators / travel camera, not long run videos. But...they invited some people that are even farther from this crowd like Hugh Browstone and he made very good points about the use cases for the camera. For me was an error, intentional or not.

The Lumix message for the camera was all over the place, their marketing team is probably on drugs (even using stock photos - don't go to Shutterstock when high 🙂). First the rumors sites (that, of course, are feeded by internal "leaks" - irony alert) cemented the idea that it was a X100VI competitor, and is VERY far from that. It is a ZV-E10 / ZV-E1 competitor that is much better for stills than both - which, for me, is a interesting proposition. But their screwed it up all over the place.

And grab a buckle of popcorn and read the comment section of the Gerald post. 🙂 There are a lot of people much more pissed than Panasonic there.